As mentioned in the final paragraphs, there are always parents who push their children into certain careers wether they are interested in that field or not.

So if fathers are saying you be lawyer, doctor to their daughters and you do it well it's no different than the sons that have had to do this since there was such a thing as careers or trades to be passed from father to son.

As for the woman who is unhappy with her career as a lawyer, I'm sure she could use her experience and law degree to get a teaching gig somewhere. You can't be beholden to your parents forever.

The advise to basically stand up for what you want in your life and not be dictated to by your parents after a certain point is valid advice for sons and daughters.

...By framing everything in terms of only women. Berman and funwithtrees excellently point out that women don't exactly hold a monopoly on parental pressure. Her advice to women (a) is already a common piece of advice to young adults in general and (b) comes off as a little patronizing to her own gender when framed as being specifically for them.

...before we decide if this is really so alarming:

1. Are daughters more likely than sons to choose the same career as their father?

2. Are daughters of two working parents more likely to choose their father's career than their mother's?

Brazen asks a couple of excellent questions - I was thinking it'd be necessary to read the studies in full to figure out how the researchers controlled for things like demographic shifts, career trajectory factors(eg widely-available birth control), etc.

Also - could it be, in the second study referenced, that women are just more likely to talk about being miserable in their job than men are? I think men have been under this kind of pressure for many more generations. I guess equality is a double-edged sword.

Between men and women on this one, unless your point is that it is arelatively more recent occurrence for women go into their father's feild because they can...? I don't see that as a bad thing. When people say that I am my father's "son" despite being one of his two daughters (as I played all the sports he did and went into a related field, oh and happen to be like him), I take that as a compliment, mostly because my father was a person of quality. I assume the sons of men of quality would also take that statement as a compliment.

i don't see the negative to feminism here.

Dr. Thomas Stanley wrote a book a decade or ago two called the Millionaire next door. His research was pretty clear: people (usually men) who make money usually do so by owing a business. The typical millionaire is in his 50s, married to the same gal, lives frugally, and is achievement oriented not status oriented. They also took a lot of risk.

There is real pressure on the kids to get an education. One reason is so that their children will not have to scrimp and save and have so many sleepless nights. Quite often their children will end up earning about what dad did only they did not have to do all those unpleasant things.

Stanley was also very clear that many of the millionaires went into very "low prestige" businesses. I would be willing to bet that a lot of the women who are now following dad's footsteps are going into law and medicine (jobs where you don't have to get your hands dirty). It would be interesting how many followed daddy into sanitation or farming.

Nor do I. My mother was a physician(since retired); I was under unbelievable pressure to become a doctor until my squeamish tendency to close my eyes at the sight of a blood or a needle was finally accepted as a viable excuse for skipping the MCAT exams. I grew up coloring pictures or reading comic books on the floor of my Dad's study while he finished paperwork or made business calls. I followed in his footsteps, not because there was any pressure, but because I have a natural talent for his profession and he encouraged me to develop it professionally. Negative professional pressure can come from either gender, but women in a position to follow their father's career path successfully is still a relatively new phenomenon. Overall, it's a sign of progress but like most things in life, each situation can only be evaluated on an individual basis.

from 6% to 18%, yes...3 times as many, but still less than 1/5th.

AND

A girl born in 1909 (at age 20 the year is 1929) simply did not have the choice to pursue many, if not most, of their dad's professions. How many of these girls became doctors? bus drivers? lawyers? scientists? or any other profession that was restricted to women?

simply lame social science

2nd study is interesting, though. yeah, dad's tend to be controlling jerks.

I agree with Assezmalicieuse (the same also goes with my mom's medical career and my own discomfort with needles and blood!). Although I followed directly in neither parent's footsteps, my occupation is similar to my father's. What's interesting is that I also inherited the same patterns and tendency to follow tangents at certain points, whereas my mother's talents were focused on one career (I'd be surprised if this was not a genetic trait).

Anyway, I'm grateful my dad has always been awesome in his support. Some of my childhood female friends had terrible dads who were completely unsupportive of their desired careers (mainly because of outdated, sexist attitudes), and I just felt so awful for them.

Both of my parents were big boosters for having a professional career. I'd have to say that my mother imparted more career advice than my dad (not all of it good, though). My father was more supportive of my career change and of finding my own path.

My observation is that it's mostly the mother who undercuts the daughter's career ... and her life in general. They tear down their daughters under the guise of "fixing" them or "helping" them. The result is usually a daughter who either cuts off communication with her mother or turns into a codependent wreck.

I do know a woman whose mother AND father criticize her work performance -- and she's a very successful professional! Of course, they've convinced themselves that they are "helping" her; they also seem to identify with her success to an alarming degree. But her career success is through her own efforts, not theirs, and their supposedly well-intentioned comments are very hurtful to her.