Who killed Take your Daughter to Work Day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is this ridiculous idea that nothing can be single gender anymore. Sort of like there is no such thing now as Boy Scouts.

Because, you know, we’re all exactly the same.

The reason Boy Scouts includes girls is because they were a failing organization with a really bad reputation that they needed to fix and bring more $$$ in. It has nothing to do with gender equity and more to do with bringing in money and losing the "we abuse little boys" reputation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dropping the collective "our" and making it "your" daughter/kids didn't help. It wasnt really intended to show kids what their parents do all day, but to expose girls to different professions, ideally those with a lack of female representation. People didn't seem to get that and it just became about dragging your own kids into the office, something they may or may not have any interest in.

Because the kids are way too young to be interested. I think the purpose ideally was to show your on-the-verge-of-adulthood child that "Hey, your just think of me as your parent but I actually have another role in life, and you're going to have one as well. Here's what I do all day to keep you fed and here's what the others at my company do. What do you think?"
it's NOT supposed to be about "Here's my adorable 6 year old who I've mentioned, everyone. Amuse them!"
And with regard to underrepresented women, let's face it, in this day and age most parents aren't worried about their daughters' success. It's the sons who need guidance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is this ridiculous idea that nothing can be single gender anymore. Sort of like there is no such thing now as Boy Scouts.

Because, you know, we’re all exactly the same.

The reason Boy Scouts includes girls is because they were a failing organization with a really bad reputation that they needed to fix and bring more $$$ in. It has nothing to do with gender equity and more to do with bringing in money and losing the "we abuse little boys" reputation.

Glad I skipped Boy Scouts and I will not allow my son to do it -- and the above is why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah pretty sure it was "take your kid to work" day back when I was a kid in the 1990s. In the past decade at my workplace it's always been "take your kid to work".

It was Take your Daughter to Work Day from 1992 to 2002. It became Take our Children to Work day officially in 2003. However, a lot of companies started letting boys come in the 1990s.

We had it Daughters only the first few years at Stock Exchange.

I find it a great loss. My daughter went in 2010 at age of 8 and by then it was a bunch of screaming 7-10 year olds in room with boys not particularly suited to sit still in a chair all day and girls of that age not much better. She turned down going the next year as it was for babies.

As opposed to 1995 when we literally had a professional event with the women (not little girls) in business outfits. The teenagers attending a professional run event. Kick off meeting CEO, formal Breakfast, formal Agenda for day, meeting all department heads, tours. And a full day. And parents not even there except lunch. They took the Daughters at start of day. They met the CEO of Stock Exchange that day, toured the trading floor, went to command center, toured Data Centers. Each area HR, Audit, Market Operations, IT, Finance all did sessions on what it is like working in their area and what a career in their area was like. At lunch break you could take your Daughters out to Lunch and then expense it and walk them around. A lot took Daughter to Harry's for lunch where the power brokers eat lunch. Even more fun at 8am program started and all the daughters got to put on trading jackets and do mock trading on floor of NYSE and get their picture on podium pretending to ring opening bell.

Last time any company I worked at did it was 2015. Been ten years since I have even seen it done. The watering down to allow boys to attend and make the ages younger ruined it.

Who has time to plan all that on top of their actual job? The reality is that most places don't do it because no one wants to plan a full day or meaningful activities for teens that may or may not be interested in doing them.

At the NYSE we had a whole HR and Training Department that handled this event on their calendar. People on trading floor they arranged lunch in house as they cant go out or if you wanted and a support function could take kid out to lunch and expense. We did events almost every day, bell ringing, IPOs so why not for our own employees daughters.

On a side note I actually hired a summer intern a wonderful first generation college student from Brooklyn who grew up in an apt in a not so great part of Brooklyn who was at take our Daughter to Work day a few years earlier. Dad worked in something like keying trade tickets back when more manual. She was my summer intern in college, nice women. I offered her a job post graduation but she actually declined, wanted to go straight to MBA and become a Financial Analyst. I know she graduated and got a job Federal Reserve and lost touch.

But we had Take Your Daughter to Work Day, Summer Internships, Management Training Programs new hires, we routinely let HS and College students come by for guided tours, we paid for College and MBAs for employees. We even had a wonderful cafeteria, shoeshine guy, free doctor on site if you were sick or needed a checkup. They paid for my MBA. And we had trainers come in and do real training.

My 35 year old Female Boss when I was 29 actually worked at NYSE part time in HS, went to a local college while working part time, graduated college by 24 and was in charge of a Dept by 34. We invested in these things.

Today it is all gone. At least CEO at NASDAQ and President of NYSE are both women. The speech given in 1993 that the women in the room today will one day be our future leaders was true.

By 2005 was children at a pizza party at take your children to work day and by 2020 done at nearly every company.

[Anonymous]

Our government research site still does this, but as part of their annual Open House on a different day. Lots of STEM demos and STEM exhibits and hands-on STEM things for kids ages 5+. It is effective at promoting STEM - and it includes kids of the admin staff and the support contractors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know who killed it, OP, #boymoms killed it. They were so jealous.

That's true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah pretty sure it was "take your kid to work" day back when I was a kid in the 1990s. In the past decade at my workplace it's always been "take your kid to work".

It was Take your Daughter to Work Day from 1992 to 2002. It became Take our Children to Work day officially in 2003. However, a lot of companies started letting boys come in the 1990s.

We had it Daughters only the first few years at Stock Exchange.

I find it a great loss. My daughter went in 2010 at age of 8 and by then it was a bunch of screaming 7-10 year olds in room with boys not particularly suited to sit still in a chair all day and girls of that age not much better. She turned down going the next year as it was for babies.

As opposed to 1995 when we literally had a professional event with the women (not little girls) in business outfits. The teenagers attending a professional run event. Kick off meeting CEO, formal Breakfast, formal Agenda for day, meeting all department heads, tours. And a full day. And parents not even there except lunch. They took the Daughters at start of day. They met the CEO of Stock Exchange that day, toured the trading floor, went to command center, toured Data Centers. Each area HR, Audit, Market Operations, IT, Finance all did sessions on what it is like working in their area and what a career in their area was like. At lunch break you could take your Daughters out to Lunch and then expense it and walk them around. A lot took Daughter to Harry's for lunch where the power brokers eat lunch. Even more fun at 8am program started and all the daughters got to put on trading jackets and do mock trading on floor of NYSE and get their picture on podium pretending to ring opening bell.

Last time any company I worked at did it was 2015. Been ten years since I have even seen it done. The watering down to allow boys to attend and make the ages younger ruined it.

Who has time to plan all that on top of their actual job? The reality is that most places don't do it because no one wants to plan a full day or meaningful activities for teens that may or may not be interested in doing them.

At the NYSE we had a whole HR and Training Department that handled this event on their calendar. People on trading floor they arranged lunch in house as they cant go out or if you wanted and a support function could take kid out to lunch and expense. We did events almost every day, bell ringing, IPOs so why not for our own employees daughters.

On a side note I actually hired a summer intern a wonderful first generation college student from Brooklyn who grew up in an apt in a not so great part of Brooklyn who was at take our Daughter to Work day a few years earlier. Dad worked in something like keying trade tickets back when more manual. She was my summer intern in college, nice women. I offered her a job post graduation but she actually declined, wanted to go straight to MBA and become a Financial Analyst. I know she graduated and got a job Federal Reserve and lost touch.

But we had Take Your Daughter to Work Day, Summer Internships, Management Training Programs new hires, we routinely let HS and College students come by for guided tours, we paid for College and MBAs for employees. We even had a wonderful cafeteria, shoeshine guy, free doctor on site if you were sick or needed a checkup. They paid for my MBA. And we had trainers come in and do real training.

My 35 year old Female Boss when I was 29 actually worked at NYSE part time in HS, went to a local college while working part time, graduated college by 24 and was in charge of a Dept by 34. We invested in these things.

Today it is all gone. At least CEO at NASDAQ and President of NYSE are both women. The speech given in 1993 that the women in the room today will one day be our future leaders was true.

By 2005 was children at a pizza party at take your children to work day and by 2020 done at nearly every company.

Cool story. Most workplaces do not have the budget or the bandwidth for these events.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The pentagon had one last year and it was great. Kids of all ages were invited.

And lots of STEM demos and STEM hands-on things for the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went with my father as a teenager and it was pretty interesting. I think bringing the ages down is what killed it. No kid under 13 is getting anything out of seeing a workplace. It just becomes snacks and coloring day. It really ought to be about exposing teens to an adult workplace.

+1. It became a carnival (I’m at NIH and this is what it essentially is now) with games and handouts, instead of showing kids what we do.

This is how it is at my company. It's really programmed for elementary school kids (arts & crafts, scavenger hunts, etc.) vs. the tweens/teens who might actually learn something about different jobs.

[Anonymous]

It used to be a big deal at one of my old employers way back in the 1990s. For those who missed it, the 90s were the best for Washington workplaces.

Now I work for a smaller company and we don't do any of that sort of thing. No holiday parties, no bonuses and certainly no take your kid to work day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My company back in 1992 did Take your Daughter to Work Day when it first started.

We targeted 13-16 year girls in year one. They all dressed in business clothes. Was extremely professional, of the girls who attended many went on to be interns our company in college and some joined us after college graduation. This was New York Stock Exchange.

By 2003 became take your kids to work day and they added sons. Which made no sense in places like Wall Street which was trying to attract women.

Around 2003- 2019 they kept lowering the ages to attend to like 5-10 and became a day of pizza parties, games and coloring books. A nonsense day. No longer any value to company or participants.

Covid came in 2020 and seems most companies never restarted it.

How did in my case 1993 where we had HS aged women on trading floor at NYSE in trading vests learning how to trade stocks, attended opening and closing bell, attend lunch in executive cafeteria, meet with CEO, tour market operations and have formal meetings to learn about various departments and learn about how a stock exchange works by 2006 became little kids eating pizza and candy and by 2020 be done.

Was a great idea. Who killed it? Can we bring it back to how it was intended?

I remember when I worked at Freddie Mac they would do this on the business side, but the IT side frowned on it. My Indian manager told me that was not a good idea to bring kids to work.

Perfect example of what is wrong with Freddie Mac.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s the point of this post?

It’s been Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work twice as long as it was Take Your Daughters to Work.

Get a time machine and complain in the early 2000’s.

Boomer Karen's gonna Boomer Karen

Perfect example of sexism being alive and well.

NP, that's not sexism. Everyone knows who Karen is because of the entitled way in which Karen wants to see the manager and stick her nose in where it doesn't belong.

Karen transcends gender and age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Men ruin everything.

Every. Thing.

This has nothing to do with men.

I’m a STEM woman with STEM daughters and I work in a male-dominated field; even I think that limiting the event to only girls was bassackwards.

[Anonymous]

It was also WOMEN take our daughters to work. it was meant to show girls that women can work and what it looks like for a mom to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Men ruin everything.

Every. Thing.

Mom of just girls has joined the chat.