January 6, 2026
Diaper bias, anyone?
Study: Managers with first-born daughters, hire more women and pay more equal [pdf]
‘Girl Dad’ bosses hire more women, but skeptics cry “caveats”
TLDR: Study finds managers with first-born daughters hire more women and narrow pay gaps without hurting performance. Commenters clash: some cheer the “Girl Dad” effect, skeptics call it caveat-heavy and outdated, while others note it’s now conditionally accepted by a leading journal—making the debate harder to dismiss.
A new study says when male managers have a first-born daughter, they hire more women and pay them closer to men. Cue the comment-section fireworks. Fans dubbed it the “Girl Dad effect,” cheering numbers like a 4.4% boost in women’s earnings and 2.9% more women employed, and loved that firm performance didn’t suffer. One commenter spotlighted the core finding: managers replace comparable men with women and outcomes improve. But the skeptics rolled in hard, waving the “so many caveats” flag and questioning whether this proves anything beyond correlation. Another voice cut through the noise with a reality check: it’s still a working paper—but now conditionally accepted at a top economics journal, the Review of Economic Studies, and a newer 2025 version exists (link).
Drama highlights: Is this heartwarming evidence that personal life can challenge workplace bias, or just statistical cosplay? Some worried about “replacing men” turning into tokenism, while others shrugged: if performance is flat, fairness wins. The meme parade was strong: “Forget unconscious bias—try diaper bias,” “HR policy: Have a daughter,” and “Bring Your Baby to Equal Pay Day.” Data nerds tussled over Danish registries vs. real-world messiness, and timeline watchers roasted the OP for sharing an older 2021 PDF. Verdict? The internet’s split: hopeful, skeptical, and definitely entertained.
Key Points
- •Male managers’ birth of a first daughter is used as a plausibly exogenous shock to gender attitudes.
- •Women’s relative earnings increase by 4.4% and relative employment by 2.9% after the manager’s first daughter is born.
- •Effects are driven by increased hiring of women with comparable qualifications, replacing male workers.
- •No significant effects on firm performance are detected following these shifts in hiring.
- •Behavioral responses are rapid and intensify over time, suggesting salience and exposure to gender equality themes drive results.