Dads who have egalitarian ideas about gender — and who walk the talk by doing household chores themselves — have daughters with higher workplace ambitions than less egalitarian fathers do, new research finds. …

“Dads who are more balanced have girls who are just as likely to play with Transformers as Barbie dolls,” study researcher Toni Schmader, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia said here Friday (Jan. 18) at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. …

But in the realm of actual behavior, dads are key. The fewer gender stereotypes dad holds, the more likely his daughter is to say she wants to work outside the home as an adult. The daughters of egalitarian men are also more likely to have broader, less gendered interests — they’re less hemmed in by stereotypes that say girls should only play house or dress in pink. They’re equally likely to play with “boy” toys versus “girl” toys, Schmader said.