How daughters change the behaviour of influential men

By E.M.

IN THE early days of Donald Trump’s presidency, many opponents clung to the hope that his elder daughter, Ivanka, could act as a restraining force. It was alleged, for instance, that she worked behind the scenes to try to convince her father to keep the United States in the Paris climate agreement. But although Ms Trump has an official advisory role, her father’s actions dashed these expectations. Ms Trump said it was “unrealistic” to expect her presence to change the president’s values or agenda. Some voters may approve of such limits on a family member’s White House role. But in what ways can having a daughter change the behaviour of powerful men?

Several academic studies have examined this question. One, by Ebonya Washington at Yale University, looked at how daughters changed the votes of members of the United States House of Representatives. A similar study, by Adam Glynn of Emory University and Maya Sen of Harvard University, considered the effect that parenting a daughter had on the rulings of judges of the United States federal courts of appeal. Finally, Paul Gompers and Sophie Wang, both from Harvard, looked at its effect on the hiring decisions of venture-capital (VC) managers. These studies found that daughters do change their fathers’ behaviour, though in limited ways.

Professor Washington found that male legislators with more daughters were more likely to receive high scores from the National Organisation for Women, a left-leaning pressure group that rates how a legislator votes on women’s issues. This effect was especially pronounced for votes relating to reproductive rights. (Women legislators tended to have higher scores regardless of whether they had a daughter.) Professors Glynn and Sen found that male judges with daughters were more likely to rule in favour of female plaintiffs in cases involving reproductive rights and employment discrimination linked to gender or pregnancy. They found that the effect was almost entirely driven by changes in the behaviour of judges appointed by Republican presidents. Professor Gompers and Miss Wang found that having a daughter causes partners in VC firms, who are predominantly male, to hire more female managers. It did not, however, persuade them to make more investments in companies founded by women.

Fathers of daughters, then, may have more empathy with women as they have a better understanding of the obstacles they face. Legislators with daughters may make greater efforts to consider reproductive-rights issues from a woman’s point of view. And VC-investors with daughters, similarly, may better appreciate the difficulties faced by women in their field. For these investors, such understanding brings a clear financial reward. VC firms which have more female managers tend to have more successful deals and higher rates of return. Empathy can be enriching.

See also:Venture capitalists with daughters are more successful