Adult Daughters’ Reflections on Fathers and his Involvement in their Education, Career and Marriage

The involvement of the father in his daughter‟s life is an emerging area of research associated with parenting. The present paper aims to understand and capture the significant role and involvement of fathers in their daughters‟ education, career, and marriage. The paper unfolds the perspectives of thirty educated and employed women from Vadodara city, Gujarat. A mixed method research design was used, where data was collected using a questionnaire to know the beliefs of fathers, extent of his involvement, followed by an interview to understand the nature of involvement, his approach to decisions and the nature of a father-daughter relationship. Descriptive statistics were used for questionnaire data, and thematic analysis was carried out to identify the patterns in the qualitative data. Results indicate that fathers fulfilled their role of being a supporter, nurturer, mentor and a provider. All engaged fathers actively supported their daughter‟s education, encouraged their participation in extracurricular activities, allowed them to pursue their choice of career, life partner and decide the right time for marriage. Daughters perceived their father‟s support as the most important part of their life for academic and professional success, conjugal relationship and personal growth.