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Student Opinion
Will You Follow in Your Parents’ Footsteps?
By Natalie Proulx
- Dec. 1, 2017
What do your parents do for work? What do you want to do when you grow up?
In “ The Jobs You’re Most Likely to Inherit From Your Mother and Father ,” Quoctrung Bui and Claire Cain Miller write:
When children choose what to be when they grow up, they often follow in their fathers’ footsteps. But mothers are powerful, too. Working sons of working fathers are, on average, 2.7 times as likely as the rest of the population to have the same job but only two times as likely to have the same job as their working mothers, according to an analysis by The New York Times, one of the first to look at mothers and daughters in addition to fathers and sons . Daughters are 1.8 times as likely to have the same job as their mothers and 1.7 times as likely to have the same job as their fathers. The estimates, drawn from General Social Survey data between 1994 and 2016, show that mothers, despite working in lower numbers, are still influential in inspiring their children’s career choices. And the passing down of occupation and other measures of socioeconomic status seems to affect boys more than girls. Some of the jobs most likely to be passed down include steelworker, legislator, baker, lawyer and doctor. Children are less likely to follow their parents’ careers if they are middle managers or clerical or service workers. These findings broadly align with previous research. “It’s not just a matter of education or what your parents can buy — there’s something about the occupations themselves,” said Kim Weeden, chairwoman of the sociology department at Cornell University, who is researching the topic with April Sutton, also a sociologist.
Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:
— Use the “Select a Job” interactive to see how often people with different types of careers have the same jobs as their parents. What do you notice? What do you wonder?
— Then, try entering the job you would like to have someday. According to statistics, how likely are you to end up with the same job as your parents? What do you think of this outcome? Do you think you will follow in your parents’ footsteps?
— Who in your family are you most likely to take after, if anyone at all? Your mother, father or someone else? How does this compare with the analysis done by The New York Times about how influential the careers of fathers and mothers are on their sons and daughters?
— The article gives many reasons for why children may choose to follow their parents’ career paths. Do any of these resonate with you? If not, what do you think explains your desire, or lack thereof, to pursue the same careers as your parents?
Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
Home / Essay Samples / Life / Life Lesson / Life Lessons I Learned from My Parents
Life Lessons I Learned from My Parents
- Category: Life
- Topic: Life Lesson , Parents
Pages: 2 (1013 words)
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The Value of Hard Work
Resilience in adversity, the importance of kindness and compassion, the value of family and relationships, the pursuit of lifelong learning, conclusion: a legacy of life lessons.
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