We inherit plenty from our parents: looks, quirks, traditions, you name it. And according to data from the General Social Survey, careers are no exception — and that even applies to bartending.
The data, which was shared in the New York Times, was collected over a 20-year period from 1994 to 2016. Sons of working fathers are, on average, 2.7 times as likely than the rest of the population to follow their fathers’ respective careers, and slightly less so at two times as likely to pursue that of their mothers. Meanwhile, daughters are 1.8 times as likely to enter the same profession as their mothers, and 1.7 times as likely to enter that of their fathers. These discrepancies, as well as the specific careers highlighted in the data, can largely be attributed to the smaller scope of career opportunities available for previous generations of women when compared to their daughters.
When it comes to bartending specifically, it seems that life behind the stick can tend to, well, stick. The data indicates that sons who have bartenders for moms are 36 times more likely to become bartenders themselves. This could indicate a few things: for one, bartending is now more accepted as a satisfying career path rather than an in-between gig. And according to the Times, men are unlikely to take jobs that haven’t traditionally been tackled by men, and bartending has historically (and unjustly) been a male-dominated industry — women were once even banned from the profession in some states.
