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In anticipation of this year’s Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work® day, my eldest daughter (soon to be 7) asked me if she could come to work with me. Since I work from home, I replied, “Sure, you can come into my office (the room next to her bedroom) and I’ll share more about what I do.” She frowned, “Nevermind.” I suppose that the idea of stepping out of her bedroom into my home office, which has become a commonplace gathering place for my children, wasn’t very exciting. Ah, the woes of working from home.

Hopefully, some of you are celebrating this wonderful day as you share with your children a glimpse of what you do all day. If you’ve never heard of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work® day, then please read on to learn more about how you, and your employer, can participate in the future.

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work® encourages girls and boys across the country to dream without gender limitations and to think imaginatively about their family, work, and community lives. This national, public education program connects what children learn at school with the actual working world. Children learn that a family-friendly work environment is an employer and family issue, not just a women’s issue. Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work helps girls and boys across the nation discover the power and possibilities associated with a balanced work and family life.

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work® Day is organized during the school year so girls and boys can take what they learn in workplaces on Thursday and apply it to the classroom on Friday. By involving whole communities—schools, girls and boys, parents, workplaces, and mentors—the program helps young people make connections between what they learn in school and their future goals.

In fact, many girls participated in Take Our Daughters to Work® Day through their schools, especially in low-income communities. Teachers helped workplaces “adopt” whole classrooms for the Day, allowing children to walk through doors they otherwise would not have the chance to enter.

By sticking to a national date—the fourth Thursday in April—communities and schools plan ahead and work together to create a dynamic interaction between the workplace and the classroom. And by participating on the official date of the program, a young person recognizes that s/he is one of millions helping to shape the future.

The program is recommended for girls and boys ages eight to eighteen. It has been our experience that children under eight tend to be facing different issues and simply do not benefit from the program in the same way. We find that, due to issues like attention span, reading comprehension, etc., the day doesn’t speak to their experience. However, there are many ways to incorporate these discussions into girls and boys 7 and under’s lives - it just requires a little creativity and planning!

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