Fathers, mothers, and legislative talk about the future

Everyone agrees that legislators in democracies should have due regard for the future. However, we do not know what factors affect politicians’ temporal focus. This is particularly true of personal characteristics of legislators, which may be advantaged by different (s)electorates. We study the temporal focus of politicians in the post-war United Kingdom, as inferred from their use of language. Specifically, we investigate whether new parents focused more on the future. We set out three mechanisms why parenthood might affect future focus. We find gendered effects: fatherhood promotes a general (across-topic) increase in future orientation amongst men, whilst motherhood promotes a decrease in future orientation amongst women which is consistent with a shift away from ‘caring’ topics towards general questions of government conduct. Our findings challenge some common tropes about parents having a greater stake in the future.