Henrietta Hay's Column

Next Thursday is "Take Our Daughters to Work Day." I'm sorry I don't have a daughter, but I plan to borrow a friend's for the day. Katie is my teen consultant. I'm not sure where to take her, since I do my work at home and she knows more about computers than I do. If I am lucky maybe I can get her to write a column for me -- the world through 13-year-old eyes. Or I can take her to my favorite coffee shop where I often meet people who give me ideas. Or I can take her down to the Sentinel newsroom and introduce her around. She is already aware of her potential, but a little variety won't hurt her.

The theme of this year's nationwide event is "Five Years of Work Towards a Lifetime of Confidence." Initiated in 1993, Take Our Daughters to Work Day is a public education program sponsored by the Ms. Foundation and supported by NOW members across the country. The program, according to its sponsors, is designed to combat the significant drop in self-esteem that often plagues girls during adolescence, and to expose girls to positive role models who could serve as mentors. It promotes the idea for all girls: You can be anything you want to be.

A 1996 Roper Starch poll found that 16.6 million adults said that they personally took a girl into the workplace during the 1996 event.

I am not suggesting that one day following Mom around in her job will inspire a girl to be the C. E. O. of a major corporation. But it might plant a seed in her mind that there can be more to her future than soccer, boys and the latest style.

Those of us who were active in the early days of the women's movement are wearing down. We had hoped by now to retire on our laurels and let the younger women take over. The problem is that just enough progress has been made toward economic and political equality to make a lot of young women think discrimination is all over.

Some of them, of course, are all too aware that it is not over. I have a young friend who plans to be an engineer and is going to college in California. She and several of her friends are victims of a serious sexual harassment situation in their dorm, they are fighting back, but win or lose, they will be forever scarred by it.

There are some little girls for whom every day is Take Your Daughter to Work day. Katrina Garnett, founder of CrossRoads Software takes her 2-year-old daughter with her on business trips to Europe. Maybe the little girl doesn't get much out of the travel experience, but she does see a lot of her mother and will grow up taking it for granted that women can succeed in the business world.

Sometimes it seems you just can't win! After three successful years of the program, in 1996 there was less talk about discrimination against girls and a lot more about the unfairness of excluding boys. Of course, dads have been taking their sons to work to establish bragging rights for years. Come on guys. Give the girls a break.

I am sorry and disgusted, but not at all surprised that the program came under attack from opponents of any form of affirmative action, however innocuous. Many companies are now insisting on inviting the boys too. Jill Savitt, a Ms. Foundation spokeswoman said, "It bothers me when companies where all the high officers are men say they're making it Take Our Children To Work Day because they don't want to discriminate against boys. Executives with glass ceilings shouldn't throw stones."

Marie Wilson, president of Ms. Foundation adds, "We're very excited bout having a day to intervene in girls' lives and give attention to their aspirations and abilities, their health, their strength and their resilience."

I expect to enjoy Katie, my daughter for a day. She will probably teach me more than I will teach her, but I hope she enjoys it too. Who knows - maybe some day she will be an architect, or an author, or a doctor, or a stay at home mother of five children. In any case, she has a lot more choices than I had at 13.