American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Female Socialization: How Daughters Affect Their Legislator Fathers
American Economic Review
vol. 98,
no. 1, March 2008
(pp. 311–32)
Abstract
Parenting daughters, sociologists have shown, increases feminist sympathies. I test the hypothesis that children, much like neighbors or peers, can influence parental behavior. I demonstrate that conditional on total number of children, each daughter increases a congressperson's propensity to vote liberally, particularly on reproductive rights issues. The results identify an important (and previously omitted) explanatory variable in the literature on congressional decision making. Additionally the paper highlights the relevance of child-to-parent behavioral influence. (JEL D72, D83, J16)Citation
Washington, Ebonya L. 2008. "Female Socialization: How Daughters Affect Their Legislator Fathers." American Economic Review, 98 (1): 311–32. DOI: 10.1257/aer.98.1.311Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D72 Models of Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination