Dad makes it easy to succeed in housework and girls

The likelihood of girls' future success will increase if the father shares housework with the mother and does not have a sense of respect for men.

Toni Schmader, a University of British Columbia psychologist in Canada, and colleagues interviewed a group of elementary students - including 196 boys and 167 girls. Questions related to the father's behavior towards boys and girls, the level of involvement in the father's housework. Then the research team also interviewed their parents with similar questions, Livescience reported.

The results show that the majority of mothers do more housework than their father and the mother's attitude towards gender has a profound impact on children. For example, if the mother thinks that girls should not study too high and should only care about the family, the children will have the same idea.

But in terms of action, the father plays an important role. In families where fathers treat girls as equal as boys and do housework positively, a great ambition for a career arises in a girl's mind. Girls' thoughts in those families are not limited to the patterns that public opinion imposes - such as girls should only play dolls and should not care about cars or robots.

Many previous studies have demonstrated that the bigger the ambition and thoughts of the children, the higher their ability to succeed in the future.

The team acknowledged that their findings do not prove that the father's gender perspective will affect the ambitions and views of daughters. They also cannot explain why father's gender perspective does not affect his son's thoughts and actions.

According to Schmader's argument, if the father has a male ideology and pushes all housework for his wife, the daughters will think that the duty of women is to manage the family. Conversely, if the father regularly does household chores and treats girls like boys, girls will think that women and men have equal roles. So you will have the same thoughts and ambitions as boys. Schmader said her team will continue to research to clarify these issues.