HAVE A DAUGHTER, BECOME A LIBERAL….Ebonya Washington of Yale University has found, unsurprisingly, that having daughters makes you more sensitive to women’s issues, even if you’re a congressman:
Washington analyzed the family composition of the 105th Congress (1997-98), as well as how the liberal National Organization for Women ranked each member based on their votes on 20 women’s issues. The rating scale ranged from zero (consistently voted against the NOW position) to 100 (always voted in accord with NOW’s position).
She found that legislators with all daughters have NOW scores that are 12 points higher than those with all sons. Among those with three children, “each daughter is associated with an increase of nearly 3 points,” Washington said.
Her results held for both Democratic and Republican congressmen.
The excerpt above is from the Washington Post, but that’s not where I found it. In this brave new world, I found it at Shakespeare’s Sister, who found it from Feministing, who found it from the Kaiser Report, who found it from the Post. The circle will be complete, I suppose, if Dan Froomkin now notes that I’ve blogged about it.
The full report is here if you want to pay five bucks for it.
