Under the influence
Study finds working moms spur their daughters on to bigger things

LIKE MOTHER, like daughter. That is the conclusion of a recent study conducted by the Harvard School of Business. The Ivy League school’s study shows that women who were raised by mothers who worked outside the home were more likely to work themselves and earn more money than women whose mothers stayed at home full time.

The findings should help ease any misplaced concerns that being a career mom could be bad for children. “You can let go of the guilt,” says Elizabeth Long Lingo, one of the study’s three authors. “Your kids are going to be OK.”

The study shows that daughters of working moms are 16 per cent more likely to hold supervisory responsibility than daughters of stay-at-home mothers. “When you are exposed to that early on, daughters draw upon that example when they make those decisions about whether to go to work or stay at home,” says Long Lingo.

The study’s researchers delved into the data from an International Social Survey Programme survey on family and changing gender roles that got responses from over 13,000 women and 18,000 men from 24 developed countries. The research team then supplemented that with employment opportunities and gender inequality data from those countries.

Long Lingo says the results don’t mean being a stay-at-home mother is not a worthwhile occupation. But she does hope the study’s findings cause females and males to challenge traditional gender roles. Perhaps it will inspire more women to rise up the corporate ladder, too.