Harvard Study Reveals How Mothers Influence Their Daughters’ Choice for Field of Study

A new study co-authored by Michela Carlana, assistant professor of public policy at Harvard University, has found mothers who have a preference for humanistic fields of study can heavily influence their daughter’s decision-making in choosing a career path. This discovery suggests parental influence could be contributing to the persistent gender gaps in male-dominated STEM fields and woman-dominated humanistic fields.

Dr. Carlana and her co-author recruited 2,000 students from 14 different middle schools in Italy to participate in one of three randomized groups. The control group was only asked to choose their desired future field of study. The second and third groups were asked the same question, but one was told to first think about their mother’s preference, while the other group was told to think about their father’s preference prior to making their decision.

In analyzing their results, the authors discovered the only statistically significant finding was that daughters’ whose mothers’ demonstrated a strong preference for humanistic fields were more likely to choose their mother’s preference over a STEM field. There was a similar pattern found among fathers’ in STEM influencing their sons’ preferences for STEM, but not to the extent found between mothers and daughters interested in humanities.

The authors believe their findings could be leveraged to raise awareness among parents regarding the impact of gender stereotypes on how their children make decisions. Making parents aware of their biases, both conscious or unconscious, could be the first step in achieving gender equity in both STEM and the humanities.

Dr. Carlana has been a faculty member with Harvard since 2018. She is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Padua in Italy, where she received her bachelor’s degree in economics and business and her master’s degree in economics and finance. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Bocconi University in Italy.