Abstract Recent debates about same-sex marriage have raised questions concerning the interchangeability of mothers and fathers. This paper provides three pieces of empirical evidence that highlight the distinct role that fathers and mothers play in the home. First, we use time-use data to show that fathers and mothers provide different amounts of time to their children regardless of who is the breadwinner in the household. Second, we show that men and women choose different occupations, with men more likely to choose occupations that have a protective role and mothers more likely to choose an occupation with a nurturing role. Third, we find that children are much less likely to experience domestic violence and neighborhood violence when there is a father in the home.

中文翻译：

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父母可以互换吗？

摘要最近关于同性婚姻的辩论提出了关于父母之间互换性的问题。本文提供了三点经验证据，突出了父母在家庭中扮演的独特角色。首先，我们使用时间使用数据来表明，父亲和母亲为子女提供不同的时间，而不管谁是家庭的养家糊口。其次，我们表明男人和女人选择不同的职业，男人更有可能选择具有保护作用的职业，而母亲更有可能选择具有养育作用的职业。第三，我们发现当有父亲在家时，儿童遭受家庭暴力和邻里暴力的可能性要小得多。