- Gen Z women are finding unexpected allies in the workplace: male bosses with daughters. They are being perceived (on TikTok, at least) as more empathetic, fair, and less toxic. Viral videos celebrate these “girl dads,” with users noting improved work environments and even higher promotion rates under their leadership. And research backs them up.
Gen Z women in the workplace are finding common ground: apparently, “girl dads” make the best bosses.
The chronically online generation is often venting on social media about their “toxic” jobs, even taking it so far as to copy fake lawyers in emails and being maliciously compliant when faced with unfair treatment—rather than dealing with any direct confrontation with HR.
And the flood of cautionary TikTok tales has led them to take stock that the best bosses they’ve had are men with daughters. They’re even filming themselves celebrating finding out that’s their new manager.
“POV: corporate girlies when they find a male manager that’s a girl dad,” wrote one user, @MissBlazer, on TikTok. The video shows her gleefully twirling in a chair.
“The best bosses/coworkers are girl dads,” reads one of the top comments—and most replies seem to agree.
Another user, @sweeet_carolline, even blasted female leaders: “No one will hate you more than an older woman in corporate America who’s jealous of you.”
The theory behind it? Male bosses with daughters tend to see the world through their daughters’ eyes, which fosters a more empathetic leadership style toward women—or what @selenarezvani calls “built-in sensitivity training.”
“There’s science to back this up,” she said, while explaining data that found male bosses with daughters statistically hire and promote women more—and the gender pay gap is smaller at companies run by “girl dads.”
The ‘daughter effect’ at work
The Gen Z women circulating on social media who have a hunch that their boss was more accommodating with a daughter may be right.
A previous study, “Shaped by Their Daughters: Executives, Female Socialization, and Corporate Social Responsibility,” measured the decisions made by around 400 CEOs (including 3.7% of women) who have a total of almost 1,000 children.
And it found that CEOs with daughters generally spend almost $60 million dollars extra per year on corporate social responsibility—which includes factors such as childcare and flexi-time, reluctance to lay off staff, and tendency for sharing profit with employees. It also considered how minority groups, including women and disabled staff are treated.
“We found that, overall, these groups tend to perform better at companies led by CEOs who have daughters,” the researchers concluded, noting that having a daughter makes a male CEO nearly one-third more likely to adopt CSR practices similar to those of female CEOs, who are typically more inclined to prioritize social and environmental responsibility.
“Overall, CEOs with daughters tend to show a stronger attachment to society at large, and concern for the well-being of stakeholders—even those who are not their shareholders,” they continued.
Columbia Business School similarly studied the “daughter effect,” and found that when male CEOs have daughters, the relative pay for women at their firms goes up, narrowing the persistent gender wage gap by almost 3% among daughters who were firstborns. The birth of a son, in contrast, had no effect on the wage gap.
