Maybe a commitment to impact causes EA parents to cooperate at maximizing it, which means optimally distributing the parenting workload whatever society thinks. In EA with lots of conferences and hardworking impactful women, it makes sense that the man’s op cost is often lower. Elsewhere couples cooperate to maximize income, but men tend to have higher earning potential so maybe the woman would often do more childcare anyway.
My sense is that parenting falls on the woman due not only to gender norms, but also higher average interest in childcare and other confounders—so I wonder how much is caused by other effects like EAs leaning liberal, questioning social expectations in general, or EA dads somehow being more keen on parenting. Also it’s unclear if EA men even contribute more than non-EA men.
I’m reminded a bit of the gender equality paradox where in the USSR, and maybe also countries with restrictive gender roles [1] there are higher rates of women in STEM and other male-dominated fields. The idea is that in liberal societies, there would be a disparity due to difference in interest, and some kinds of external factor can reduce disparities on net—in the Soviet case because equality was enforced by the state, in other cases if there is economic interest or a lack of Western stereotypes. So EA mindset is maybe one of these external factors—not to imply it’s like Soviet central planning or anything.
I don’t have reason to think that prioritizing women’s careers is more common in EA than in other similarly educated groups. And within EA, I definitely think it’s still most common that women are doing more of the parenting work. But I wanted to highlight some examples to show that multiple configurations really are possible!
What inspiring and practical examples!
Maybe a commitment to impact causes EA parents to cooperate at maximizing it, which means optimally distributing the parenting workload whatever society thinks. In EA with lots of conferences and hardworking impactful women, it makes sense that the man’s op cost is often lower. Elsewhere couples cooperate to maximize income, but men tend to have higher earning potential so maybe the woman would often do more childcare anyway.
My sense is that parenting falls on the woman due not only to gender norms, but also higher average interest in childcare and other confounders—so I wonder how much is caused by other effects like EAs leaning liberal, questioning social expectations in general, or EA dads somehow being more keen on parenting. Also it’s unclear if EA men even contribute more than non-EA men.
I’m reminded a bit of the gender equality paradox where in the USSR, and maybe also countries with restrictive gender roles [1] there are higher rates of women in STEM and other male-dominated fields. The idea is that in liberal societies, there would be a disparity due to difference in interest, and some kinds of external factor can reduce disparities on net—in the Soviet case because equality was enforced by the state, in other cases if there is economic interest or a lack of Western stereotypes. So EA mindset is maybe one of these external factors—not to imply it’s like Soviet central planning or anything.
[1] the research seems disputed here
I don’t have reason to think that prioritizing women’s careers is more common in EA than in other similarly educated groups. And within EA, I definitely think it’s still most common that women are doing more of the parenting work. But I wanted to highlight some examples to show that multiple configurations really are possible!