02/10/2026
I wish someone could explain this to me. Because I just don't understand it. 
Father-daughter relationships are often characterized by emotional distance, Isabel Woodford writes. She spoke with a dozen women, many of whom “described a painful discordance with their dad,” about what each side has to lose—and how they can rebuild trust. https://theatln.tc/wiBwCQ9h
The strained father-daughter relationship has been a topic of exploration for decades. In the 1990s, the journalist Victoria Secunda wrote the book “Women and Their Fathers” after interviewing 150 daughters and 75 dads, finding that most of the relationships they described were marked by “too much distance.” In 2011, the psychologist Peggy Drexler wrote “Our Fathers, Ourselves,” which drew on interviews with dozens of women.
Fathers and daughters are more likely to become estranged than other pairs within the nuclear family, studies show. And even in cases where contact isn’t completely cut off, father-daughter relationships tend to be less close than other familial bonds.
Yet even between daughters and fathers whose dynamic has become intensely strained, one expert has argued that relationships can—and do—recover.
📸: Peter Marlow / Magnum
