Having Daughters Increases Parents’ Identification with the Republican Party

[antigone382]

18. It's clear from this thread that a lot of people don't really get quantitative social research.

Of course one study is not definitive. Nor does it mean that every single DUer who has a daughter is actually a Republican and just doesn't know it. If you have a daughter and you're still a Democrat that is very smart of you, and provides a lovely anecdote, but it has nothing to do with statistical review of a randomly sampled survey.

This is one study by reputable researchers that don't appear to have any bias. They happened to find a significant mathematical relationship between having a daughter or daughters and political orientation. It doesn't mean they think that is a good or bad thing, it isn't definitive because it hasn't been thoroughly replicated in other studies, and the potential interpretations they offer of that finding are admittedly speculative. Try to grasp how social science works, and don't take it so personally.

It's also important to note that the study comes from a review of the 1994 General Social Survey. It is difficult to say if having one or more daughters would have the same effect on political orientation 20 years later, in a very different political, cultural, historical context.