Similar here. I think a major contributor are other social influences other than myself and wife - most notably friends at kindergarden/school, and teachers there, too.
There's much subtle influence that isn't obvious at first, at least wasn't to me. For example, notice how many people (say, neighbours or more importantly, grandparents or other relatives) will often congratulate little girls to being really pretty as the first thing that comes out of their mouthes. Not that they're deliberately trying to influence the girls, but it's sort of "default" boilerplate smalltalk with girls, say how pretty they are and how nice their dress is. Certainly that will affect their perception of themselves, what is pretty, what they want to buy...
Edit: just found the (oldish) opinion piece on huffpost [1] that originally got me thinking about just that last point
Compliment women (not only girls) "by default" on their looks actually drives me nuts. It's used even in situations where is totally irrelevant (e.g. radio show). It is really engraved n our culture.
Sometimes I want to look competent, strong, eloquent, sturdy (good for martial arts training), etc. Sometimes I'm ok with pretty or cute. No, it's not the same. Don't reduce us to just pretty, please. Look beyond. (Some don't, which is why too pretty can be a problem if one wants to be a kick-ass hacker or such.)
To be fair, being pretty is a good strategy for women. I feel reminded of a recent Sam Altman article where he wrote "sadly, learning Ruby on Rails in <some short amount of time> is still a viable strategy".
Likewise, sadly concentrating on being pretty is a viable strategy for women. It's not that they can't do anything else, but they have this option (much more so than men).
There's much subtle influence that isn't obvious at first, at least wasn't to me. For example, notice how many people (say, neighbours or more importantly, grandparents or other relatives) will often congratulate little girls to being really pretty as the first thing that comes out of their mouthes. Not that they're deliberately trying to influence the girls, but it's sort of "default" boilerplate smalltalk with girls, say how pretty they are and how nice their dress is. Certainly that will affect their perception of themselves, what is pretty, what they want to buy...
Edit: just found the (oldish) opinion piece on huffpost [1] that originally got me thinking about just that last point
[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-bloom/how-to-talk-to-litt...