Gender Egalitarian Dads May Have More Ambitious Daughters

The research is correlational, so it doesn't prove that fathers' attitudes are the cause their young daughters' work aspirations. But the research may suggest that girls look to their fathers for examples of what is expected of women. Dads' attitudes also predict what kind of play their daughters enjoy.

"Dads who are more balanced have girls who are just as likely to play with Transformers as Barbie dolls," study researcher Toni Schmader, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia said here Friday (Jan. 18) at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.