‘Eldest daughter syndrome’ burdens girls – 04/11/2023 – Balance

Have you ever heard of the “eldest daughter syndrome”? It is the emotional burden that eldest daughters tend (and are encouraged) to take on in many families from a very young age.

Caring for younger siblings, helping with day-to-day chores, taking care of sick parents, managing household purchases, in person and online – older daughters often take on a heavy but invisible burden of domestic responsibilities from an early age .

You might ask what’s wrong with that. After all, older children, who are supposed to be more mature, shouldn’t they help and take care of their younger siblings? And aren’t girls “naturally” better at providing this kind of care?

These popular concepts are so ingrained that they can make it difficult for us to see the problem.

Eldest Daughter Syndrome recently trended on TikTok (#EldestDaughterSyndrome). Teenage girls are talking about the unfair, unpaid and unrecognized workloads they receive in their families. And they are also discussing the harmful effects on their life, health and well-being.

Of course, the “syndrome” has existed for centuries in many parts of the world. Why is it only now considered such an important issue?

Even with women’s advances in education and employment, they still take on most of the housework.

Indeed, progress towards gender equality in the workplace has not translated into gender equality at home. And eldest daughter syndrome may help explain why this happens.

Research shows that children make a considerable contribution to housework, which is often underestimated. And, mirroring the gender divide among adults, girls aged 5-14 spend 40% more time doing housework than boys.

Following a kind of patriarchal hierarchy, the eldest daughter often assumes responsibilities with her siblings.

As many girls expressed on TikTok, the syndrome can undermine the well-being of older daughters and “steal” their childhood, as they are quickly driven to take on adult responsibilities at disproportionate levels – also known as “parenting”. “. This process reproduces gender inequality in domestic work for subsequent generations.

Why does it happen

There are at least three behavioral theories behind the oldest daughter syndrome. They often occur at the same time and are mutually reinforcing.

The first is the theory of organizational roles. She suggests that older daughters often look up to their mothers as role models when learning to “do” gender.

Second, comes the theory of sexual typing. She proposes that parents often assign different tasks to girls and boys based on gender.

Sexual typing often arises from parents’ understanding of gender, when they consider that housework is associated with femininity. And even when parents consciously seek to instill gender equality in their children, gender typing can occur when older daughters unconsciously accompany their mothers in gendered activities such as cooking, cleaning, and shopping.

Finally, work substitution theory suggests that when working mothers have little time available for housework, older daughters often act as “surrogates.” The result is that they end up dedicating more time to care and household chores.

As a result, mothers’ progress towards gender equality at work may lead to their eldest daughters taking on household chores from an early age. And when we expand our analysis, the oldest daughter syndrome has deeper consequences for global gender inequality and the current global crisis in the care sector.

In the Philippines, for example, many mothers migrate to Europe, the United States and the Middle East to work as domestic servants.

Her work, to some extent, frees her clients from gender inequality at home by outsourcing housework. But in the Philippines, the eldest daughters of such mothers often have to take on the role of “surrogate” mothers and manage the household.

In the process, eldest daughter syndrome reproduces domestic gender inequality for generations, transferring that inequality from one part of the world to another.

What can we do?

The “cure” may sound simple – we need families to recognize the unfair burden that may be being placed on the shoulders of older daughters and redistribute household responsibilities more equitably.

But this is not an easy task. The men in the family, in particular, need to increase their contribution to housework. That is, it is necessary to undo centuries of mentality that care and domestic work would be linked to the “feminine” gender.

To do this, we first need to recognize the problem that domestic work, particularly work done by children and older daughters, is basically ignored, unpaid and undervalued.

The UK budget for 2023 included an investment of £4 billion (about R$25 billion) to expand the coverage of day care centers in the country. This figure somewhat illustrates the immense economic value of childcare.

The figure may be enormous, but it represents only a tiny fraction of the wide variety of domestic responsibilities disproportionately shouldered by women and, often, by eldest daughters.

But we cannot change what we cannot see.

That’s why raising awareness about Elder Daughter Syndrome, not only as an individual struggle, but also as an issue of gender inequality, is a good start.

*Yang Hu is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Lancaster, UK.

This article was published originally here.