According to an open, quantitative online research study conducted by the authors for our book, The Fatherless Daughter Project: Understanding Our Losses and Reclaiming Our Lives (Avery, June, 2016), out of approximately 2,000 female respondents between the ages of approximately 15 and 80, of diverse backgrounds, 50% of females identified as fatherless. These women cited a range of reasons that they became fatherless, including parents’ divorce or separation (28%), emotional absence (26%), death (19%), desertion (13%), addiction (13%), abuse (12%), never having met their father (6%) and incarceration (4%). As I evolved into a young adult, these repressed emotions rose to the surface. This lack of understanding of my current emotional reaction to fear of abandonment -- became an over-reaction to everything -- and I always felt guilty, isolated, misunderstood, and out of control. This is where the obvious divide comes for women who have experienced father loss. Life experiences can be post-traumatic triggers that unearth pain hidden since she was a child. Often faced with assuming responsibility at a young age, she grows up more quickly than her peers and develops qualities of self-reliance, leadership and perseverance. The flip side of these positive attributes is that the fatherless daughter can take on far too much herself. Because of taking care of my mother, I developed the tendency to carry burdens for others. I become over-stressed and psychologically taxed. While I developed powerful coping mechanisms, I always put myself last, leading to isolation, loneliness and depression.
Article- How growing up without a dad affects women
Article - What it's like to be a fatherless daughter
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