4 days ago
Expecting a boy or girl? The outcome will change your outlook on life – and your future earnings
Being the eldest sibling comes with a host of responsibilities, but the impact of being a boy or girl may be even bigger than previously thought.
Scientists have discovered that when parents have a child, their life alters depending on whether they have a boy or a girl.
Those who have a girl go on to adopt more traditional gender roles, data show. Women earn less money after giving birth to a girl, are less likely to resume careers, do more housework, and view the world in a more traditional way.
University of Warwick researchers dubbed this the 'daughter penalty' phenomenon and its impacts are significant on fathers, mothers, the eldest child, and other younger children too.
Previous studies have found that women bear the brunt of loss of earnings when having a first child, with men less likely to have career setbacks.
Relationship quality
However, this study is the first to show that having a daughter is worse for this than having a son.
'The sex of the first child has a substantial influence on women's labour market outcomes, on the division of household work and childcare, on views on gendered roles, on mental health and on relationship quality,' study lead author Dr Sonia Bhalotra from Warwick told The Telegraph.
Analysis found that, on average, a mother's monthly earnings over the five years after birth were £450 lower if they had a daughter compared with a son.
For fathers, monthly earnings were £195 higher if they had a daughter compared with a son.
'To put these figures in perspective, they exceed the child benefit for first children (which is approximately £110 per month),' Dr Bhalotra said.
Women themselves take on more housework and domestic duties after having a daughter than after a son, the scientists found, and suffer worse mental health as a result. Men, however, see no change.
In households where the daughter penalty is being felt, the father is less likely to consider divorce, the study found, and younger siblings grow up in an environment with entrenched stereotypical gender roles.
Gender norms
'This could act as a mechanism for the perpetuation of gender norms,' the scientists write in their study.
'It also follows that boys growing up with first-born sisters may exhibit stronger gender norms than boys growing up with first-born brothers.'
If the eldest child is a son the division of labour is more fair and mothers and fathers are seen as equals, whereas in daughter-first households this dynamic is less likely.
This could create an environment where younger sons are accustomed to women being less powerful and as a result make them more susceptible to the manosphere narrative, the scientists warn, which leads to the red pill viewpoints, incel culture and other misogynistic behaviours.
'First-born girls grow up exposed to more traditional gender divisions among their parents than first born boys,' Dr Bhalotra said.
'As a result of which, a large fraction of women in society may have traditional norms instilled in them even if the men who are their contemporaries don't.
'Boys with an older sister grow up with more entrenched prototypical gender norms than boys with an older brother and eldest sons.'
Family unit
It is plausible, she added, that boys with an older sister could be more vulnerable to misogynistic influences as a result of their lifelong exposure to more gendered roles in the family unit.
'I am not aware of research that conclusively establishes this link, but it looks plausible,' Dr Bhalotra said.
The team is now looking at future research which will investigate deeper the possible ramifications of the daughter penalty on the children and siblings.
One route of investigation in an upcoming study will see how world view and gendered perspectives change depending on your siblings.
'Our findings imply that girls and boys in the UK are, on average, growing up in different home environments, with girls growing up in households that, by multiple markers, are more gender-regressive,' the scientists write in their paper.
'This is potentially a mechanism for the inter-generational transmission of gendered norms.'
Dr Bhalotra said that the daughter penalty is also seen throughout society, irrespective of politics, wealth, health and education.
The child penalty is smaller among parents with a college degree, but the daughter penalty is larger, the scientists found, and it is also larger among parents who have more progressive gender norms.
