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Apr.24,2014
April 24, Take Your Son and Daughter to Work Day!
The day began in 1993 to give adolescent girls additional attention and an insight into work-world opportunities available to them. When boys realized that they were in school as usual while the girls were out having fun, the day turned into Take your Son and Daughter to Work Day. Much better.
Too bad it wasn’t planned that way in the first place. Isn’t it just as (or more) important for adolescent boys to see both women and men in the workplace? Aren’t “boys” still the ones at the top, who do the screening and the hiring?
Years ago, I was part of a similar program, XYZ, to give girls an extra push by having a day of science, for girls only, taught by female scientists. Sounds good, right? Wrong. First, there was the giggle factor – boys, young and old, giggling over the fact that girls had to be taken aside and given special attention to learn science. They just weren’t good enough to take science with the boys.
They were right—that’s how it looked.
That should have been enough to kill the program, but it didn’t. I tried several times to change the course of the program, simply by inviting boys to the classes. Let the boys experience female scientists, too. (see above for why that’s important!) I continued to volunteer in the program, constantly petitioning for a change of philosophy and was shot down each time, until I finally quit. I realized that sexism was still rampant, and the powers that be would always consider that girls need special TLC to learn the hard stuff.
Last time I checked (4/22/14) the program is alive and running, and still girls only. I found an interesting FAQ on their website:
Q (paraphrasing): Why is there such a thing as the XYZ conference?
A (in part): Because girls and women are still underrepresented in science and technology fields.
I might pose it in the opposite way.
Q: Why are girls and women still underrepresented in science and technology fields?
A: Because programs like XYZ that have existed for more than 30 years, and are still encouraging people to think girls can’t cut it in the normal learning environment. Because boys who are left out will still go on to be the CEOs, Research Directors, who will pass over those girls.
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Mysti — In my experience, women have been just as guilty as men as far as gender inequity. My female secretaries in one place of employment were among the worst . . . examples on request, maybe next week!
Priscilla — right now it’s a matter of random luck, I feel — for example I had female math teachers in 1950! I didn’t know any better and thought math was a woman’s field! And good points about girls’ high schools.
Camille, you made an excellent point which I had never thought about and rather agree with. But I do think there is some reason for separating boys and girls to some degree because the assumption remains that math, science, and careers are still a man’s world. Having gone to a girl’s only high school, I did see the benefit of girls not looking over their shoulders to see if the boys thought it was OK for them to be leaders, thinkers, into “boy” things. Once they got into the habit, they tended to continue. I would like to see more women teaching science and math in high school so they become role models for girls and teach boys “that is just the way it is”. Sadly, there is still a strong undercurrent of “a woman’ place is really just in the home”… I will stop now before I get into a rant!
I’m always so torn on this issue. In college, I refused to attend gender-exclusionary events, but when an imbalance exists, you have to do *something* to change the inequity?
I was just in a large group meeting that was 95% male. The facilitator called on all the men first, even though she was female. So maybe changing behavior in all classrooms is more important than giving young women special times and places to experiment with science without fear of failure. I’m not sure…
As for the giggle factor: show me a boy who is giggling, and I’ll show you a boy who is pretty sure he’s wrong and trying to cover up. Let them giggle.
I understand how tricky it is, Linda.Thanks for chiming in. I’d like to think we’re past the point of pulling groups out. What do you think of the “giggle factor?”
Astronaut Sally Ride set up places and materials for girls to learn science. I’m not sure what has happened to them since her death.
Affirmative Action can have a reverse effect, and sometimes a double reverse. I used to work for a man who would disparage women employees getting in under Affirmative Action and then would automatically except the women who worked for him. Once we got through the door, we could prove ourselves.