Is your office atwitter with the sounds of the daughters and sons of employees today?
I thought not. Judging from the feminist websites, “Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day” just isn’t the big deal “Take Your Daughters to Work Day” used to be.
I’m glad because, whether coed or unisex, the whole thing created a false impression about the nature of being gainfully employed. The Ms. Foundation designated the last Thursday in April “Take Your Daughters to Work Day” in 1993. Somewhere the boys were added as an afterthought and in response to protests.
The holiday encapsulates the feminist notion of work–work is a place you go to build self-esteem. Feminists don’t regard taking children to work as disruptive because, well, work isn’t really about work.
Not only does Take Your Daughters and Sons to work promote an unrealistic notion of the work of parents, it also promotes a frivolous notion about the real job of children: going to school. In fact, a number of schools have protested that children should not miss classes on this day.
“But a representative for the Ms. Foundation for Women, which has renamed the day ’Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work,’ said bringing kids to work in the summer eliminates the chance for them to discuss what they learned with teachers and classmates.
“’It’s not a field trip, and it’s not a career day. It’s a life discovery day,’ said Cheryl McCants, a spokeswoman with the Ms. Foundation in New York City. ’As with most education programs, they are best educated when teachers have the chance to flesh them out in school.’”
A discovery day. I like that.
Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work is the feminist version of playing with mud pies–except that playing with mud pies messes up the back porch instead of mummy’s entire office.