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Take Our Daughters To Work In 1993,
SCA Founder and President, Nell Merlino, created In 1993, SCA Founder
and President, Nell Merlino, created Take Our Daughters To Work
for the Ms. Foundation for Women. The planning for what would become
a mass, public action campaign of unprecedented impact began when
The Ms. Foundation for Women approached Nell with research findings
compiled by Carol Gilligan, Professor of Gender Studies at the Harvard
Graduate School of Education, that indicated young girls underwent
a sharp drop in self-esteem and self-confidence as they moved through
adolescence. This same research further indicated that with the
attention and care of adults, girls could flourish in adolescence. Interview with Nell Merlino, the creator of Take Our Daughters to Work © The creator of Take Our Daughters to Work ©, Nell Merlino, and Kristen Golden, the Ms. Foundation's first project director, reminisce about the good old days when they conspired to convince more than one million people to take their daughters into workplaces nationwide on the same day. On April 28, 1993, girls were everywhere - in factories, in corporate meetings, in operating rooms - and on the front page of every major newspaper. KG: At the Ms. Foundation for Women, we were captivated by the new research that documented a pattern of strong, vital young girls transforming into tentative, unsure young women as they went through adolescence. We also found the research hopeful because it discovered that with the attention and loving care of adults, girls could flourish in adolescence. This rang true to us, so we began funding and creating grassroots programs that encouraged girls to value themselves and to connect with adults. As a national organization, though, we wanted to find a way to get this information out there on a grand scale. So we were directed to you - the big picture expert. NM: I remember lugging the research around in my bag for a few weeks as I tried to figure out how to talk about this issue in a way that would capture the imagination of folks and the media. I happened to have it with me when I attended a party for my father as he retired from 35 years of public service. Looking back over his career, I thought about how many times I had attended swearing-in ceremonies, or gone to work with my dad or my mom, who's an artist. I realized that a lot of my understanding of the larger world came from seeing what my parents did. NM: Actually, my first image was of a subway car packed with girls during rush hour (I originally thought this would take place just in New York City!). I imagined that every adult was accompanied by a girl. How often did we see girls outside of school, home and the mall? Taking girls where people don't expect to see them sends a powerful message. Our theme became making girls "visible, valued and heard." KG: I stood in the balcony of Grand Central Station and looked down on the evening rush hour that first year. The swirl of adults and girls was incredibly moving - just as you had imagined it! NM: I woke up that morning at 6:15 a.m. and the first thing I saw on the morning news show was a weatherman and his daughter. I was thrilled. NM: I knew in February, 1993, when in one week, powerful editorials ran in Esquire and People magazines urging everyone to participate in Take Our Daughters to Work © day. Then, the editor of New York Times hosted a breakfast for business leaders to learn about the campaign. I think businesspeople, and especially male executives and dads, were greatly reassured by these male powerbrokers saying this is a really worthwhile venture. We also got terrific early support from Working Mother, Ms., and Essence magazines. KG: I'm continually amazed by how quickly TODTW became a part of the pop culture lexicon. I run into references of it everywhere: from cartoons like Doonesbury and Cathy to sitcoms and the Tonight Show. I recently got a mailing from a phone company with the headline, "It's Take Your Phone Company to Work Day," encouraging me to sign up my business for their phone service. NM: More than 45 million people in the United States claim to have participated in Take Our Daughters to Work © over the past five years. That's an extraordinary impact.
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campaingns... Take Our Daughters To Work |
KG: So you thought of having girls go into workplaces with their
parents, or other concerned adults.
KG: I started to get an inkling of how big this campaign could be
when Parade magazine ran a brief announcement one full year before
the day, and my office was swamped with letters from people telling
personal stories of what was happening to the girls in their lives,
and wanting more information about what they could do for them.
A Girls Scout Council in Boston requested materials for 26,000 girls.