The Zoomer Report: More Dads Influencing Daughters' Careers

Libby Znaimer | March 13th, 2009

Here’s an interesting finding about Zoomer dads. They appear to be playing a bigger role in their daughters’ career choices compared to men of previous generations.

The notion that fathers pass on job skills and work interests to their sons has been long established. The question is — is the same thing true for daughters now that women are entering occupations that used to be predominantly male?

Researchers from the University of Maryland studied the career paths of 63,000 women born between 1909 and 1977. About 20 percent of the women born in the last decade of the study followed in their fathers’ footsteps. That’s triple the number who did in the first decade of the study. By comparison, the percentage of men who followed in their fathers’ career paths remained relatively unchanged at about 30 percent during the study period.

It may be that today’s fathers are spending more time with their daughters and passing on more skills and values. Another factor may be that daughters also are paying more attention to their fathers.