When I was young and it was summer, I used to go with my mom to work on a regular basis. She worked at a recreation center where I would sit at an extra desk, draw pictures, and once in a while venture down the hall to watch the girls do flip-flops on the balance beam in gymnastics class. Later, when she ran a tennis pro shop at a country club, she’d dress me in little tennis dresses off the clearance rack and I’d run around with the club members’ kids. I loved every minute of it, just being able to see how my mom spent her time and interacted in a professional setting. In 1993, the Ms. Foundation took that idea to the next level and launched “Take Our Daughters to Work” day, and encouraged workplaces to develop their own programs. The purpose of this fourth Thursday in April was to expose kids to what adults did all day at work, remind them of the value of education, and give them a chance to experience what work might look like for them in the future.
In 1996, I worked at Stanford University, and it was decided through the Feminist Studies department, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the Work-Life Center, that both daughters and sons should attend. In 2003, the Ms. Foundation agreed. There was a university-wide call for volunteers, and though I was twenty-three years old, and nowhere near having a daughter or son, I was drawn to the cause. A part of me was searching for community in working in such a large environment, another part of me wanted to take the prize for developing their logo for the event that year, but deep down, I knew that exposing kids to what their parents or adults in their lives did all day was an important exchange.
We met on a regular basis to discuss the program, which included an opening ceremony with balloons and a speech, juice, coffee, and morning pastries, and then time spent back in the office with the grown-ups. I designed a logo that illustrated the Mission-style architecture of Stanford’s buildings with the towering palm trees that lined their infamous Palm Drive. It seemed to me that this event was on the forefront of empowering our young boys and girls—letting them know that in this country they really could do whatever they wanted when they grew up, as long as they put their minds to it. The talk and messages received from the adults around them that morning reiterated that.
And things have evolved over the years. I’m happy to see that the Ms. Foundation has incorporated itself into individual organizations’ programs. They have developed their own logo, which Stanford now uses. And although I miss seeing mine and wonder where it went, I’m happy to see that there is some uniformity there. Their logo in an illustrated shooting star and reads, “Revolutionizing the Workplace,” which speaks to a study that was done by the Families and Work Institute, where “81 percent of girls and almost 60 percent of boys said they would reduce their work hours when they have children.” If our future work force sticks to making choices like that, the workplace is certainly going to go through a revolution. I hope I’m still in the workforce to see it.
At Stanford, on April 26th, kids aged ten through fifteen will have a plethora of ideas to explore future career choices. After morning performances from university student jugglers, hip-hop dancers, and an improv group, sons and daughters will leave the adults and participate in one of twenty-five different workshops. Stanford has covered both sides of the brain in order to attract future artists, scientists, builders, and athletes. Kids will be able to choose workshops such as Brain Day, where they’ll have hands-on exploration of human and animal brain anatomy and how different brains work. Some will visit with structural engineers at the Blume Earthquake Engineering Center to learn about earthquakes and how to safely design buildings. Others may decide to head over to the campus radio station to try out being a disc jockey or over to the Medical School to learn about the inner workings of the human body by doing virtual surgeries.
