Take Our Children to Work Day (or Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, as it is officially known) is being celebrated today in the United States. And as nice as that might sound, it makes my heart sink. Because it’s a would-be post-feminist charade that’s butted out what I believe was an amazing program for American girls. Take Our Daughters to Work Day is one of the reasons I am a feminist. It kills me that it lasted barely a decade in its true form.
Take Our Daughters to Work Day was introduced in 1993 by Gloria Steinem and the Ms. Foundation for Women. It was to promote the idea that girls can be and do whatever they want. They were explicitly welcomed into the workplace and told that when they grow up, they can do this too. They can have this job, earn this money, enjoy this success.
Boys already know that. From their baby clothes on, they’re told they are on the path to being a baseball player or an astronaut or whatever the hell they want. They’re boys. No little brat on the playground is ever going to tell them they can’t be a doctor or a fire fighter or a soldier because of their sex. Especially if
they’re white and middle class and American-born.
When only daughters are taken to to work, the message that they are explicitly valued and welcome in the workplace is clear. When children are taken to work, that message is lost to just another generic “Reach for the stars, kids!” message that clearly does young girls no favors, and reinforces the entitlement of young boys.
I do see the value in taking all children to work. And I think one change that should be made is de-emphasizing children following their parents to work, because some parents don’t work or have jobs that can’t accomodate the program. My mother was out of work in 1993, but she was awesome so she arranged for me to spend the day with a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer. At the time, all I wanted to be when I grew up was a fast-talking nosy reporter along the lines of Hildy from His Girl Friday. Seeing the inside of a news room was a magical experience for me. I think giving that to all children to reinforce their ambitions and dreams is a lovely goal.
But: not at the expense of Take Our Daughters to Work Day. Because in other years, when I followed my mom to work at her job that was not even remotely in my dreams, I still got something out of the program that just doesn’t happen when the boys come too. I got to see other young girls on the train with their parents, excited for a special day in the big city. I got to hear adults take the time to tell girls what they can do with their lives, praise them for their talents and interests instead of how pretty they look that day.
My wish is to see Take Our Daughters to Work Day brought back in its true form. But as an adjunct, to share the joy and to shut up the “Won’t somebody think of the BOYS!” critics, let’s have When I Grow Up Day. Where we take all children (not just the daughters and sons of workers) to a job they’re interested in.
Because yes, all kids deserve to be shown the working world. But Take Our Daughters to Work Day is about more than that. It tells girls “we value you, we welcome you, we’re waiting for you.” When it’s just a day for all kids, the day becomes just another message of, “You can come too, even though you are a girl.”
So let’s take our children to work. But on the fourth Thursday of April, let’s take our daughters to work.
ok here’s a thought (to play the devil’s advocate a bit), and I’ll preface this by saying that I spent my earliest formative years in Finland where the gender gap is luckily quite narrow and I probably benefited from this more than I realize BUT by singling out girls through a program like this, wouldn’t you be giving the message that this special treatment is needed in order for girls to succeed? I mean giving that idea to the girls themselves, and thereby insinuating that being a doctor/firefighter/whatever IS really challenging for girls and they need extra encouragement to take it on.
I guess it might a naive view, but in my experience it just never occurred to me that things like math and science were gendered in any way. They were just school subjects. I never got it in my head that they should be ‘difficult’ so I just did them, all the way through university. I think if I had gotten the message that ‘girls can do math too’ I might have thought harder about it and developed a bit more of a mental block against it, thinking it must really be difficult.
Again, this might be my naive view because I was perhaps spared from more of the stereotyping, but a thought to consider.
Nina I agree completely.
On a lighter note, if we bring it back, we have to look forward to awkward jokes like these: http://www.hulu.com/watch/1997/arrested-development-take-your-daughter-to-work-day
I saw that on this on the calendar the other day and thought the same thing. I didn’t know the history behind that, though.
Fruits of daughter to work day?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2014883224_womenschool27.html
I agree with Robin. There was a study done a few years ago, looking at how girls participate in math/science classes in public schools versus all-girls schools. The difference was amazing. In the all-girls’ classes, girls participate more frequently, are more vocal and achieve higher scores.
At my current firm, they do a mock trial and other activities for the kids. Not surprisingly, the boys dominated the judge and lawyer roles, which seems to defeat the purpose of bringing girls to a law firm to show them what great lawyers girls can be.
What about young men of color? Many of them are being raised by single moms. I guess they automatically know that they have a place in the work place too. In fact how does the author know what girls and boys are told during childhood? Is it not a parent’s job to encourage their child to pursue his/her dreams? No day will make up for lousy parents.
Dave
ps. Just as many of the females as males I grew up with became doctors. For the record there was no “
take your daughters to work” back then( We are in our early 50’s). We just had good parents who did their jobs.