Mum and dad

 In terms of aspiration and job choice

A person really has little choice:

Either they do what their father wants of them or what their mother wants

It is not always true, but common

That the daughter follows instinctly the father's wishes - 

A higher social class,

marry well, get the grand children into a better school

The right sort

Or the son does what the mother wants or would like

be less ambitious 

Be a family man

Be happy

Spend time with the kids

The daughter will marry a rich

but fairly stupid man of the right class

Whom she can control

And the son will marry of a similar class

But a social climber

a wife who is his intellectual superior

So that ultimately she makes the decisions

Like his mother did for him