sullster

[QUOTE]Originally posted by UglyManOnCampus
[B]Is there a reason that it was ever for daughters only?

Of course there was a reason. Girl-Power! It was to take young womyn out of the patriarchial brain washing school, where they are taught only to become breeding housewives, and expose them to the world of jobs and careers. The males were supposed to sit quietly and contemplate the depths of their misogyny while feeling shame about male supremacy.

winterwooskie

yes sexism is lame but it's just as lame to be sexist while fighting sexism.

if you see school as patriarchal, why not try to change it rather than take a child out for one day and feel so self-righteous about it?

and the thing about how males are supposed to just stay in school and feel guilty for what other people do is not valid. yes they may have a penis, but that does not automatically make them sexist and contributing to a patriarchal society.

this is what happens when people fight sexism with sexism and it seems like some people are more concerned with being apart of an exclusive club than fighting sexism.

and i remember once when there was a take your children or sons to work club and they thought it would be a good idea to have it on the same day as the take your daughter to work thing because they are both equally valid and the take your daughters to work people were pissed about it and maybe even took legal action because it took away from their club's sexist goal.

Monkeybot

I always thought it was to encourage women to have careers... boys already get/got plenty of that encouragement from society at large, so there was no need for a "take your son to work" day. I dunno, that's just my guess.

(Of course, I also think "take your daughter to work day" is kind of pointless as well... I don't think I ever went to my parents' work in the 18 years I lived at home *shrug*)

winterwooskie

it helps to encourage people to think about what they would like to do. yes it helps with girls to see that a career is good but for the take your daughter to work people have a problem with another group thinking its a good idea for both to go is ridiculous. it is also not just to let children know that they will have to get a job when they are older, it is an opportunity for them to share time with their parent and in an environment that they usually do not get a chance to see.

if you have a problem with boys being able to go as well because you think they have enough opportunities then you should have just as much a problem with a school having a career day. i believe it should just be about good intentions. take your children to work with you to see what the parent does, to show that children can choose to do whatever they like, and to spend time with a parent. you could also criticize the whole thing and just say they see enough of their children at home, so it's pointless to take them to work with you.

livius drusus

Actually, the Ms. Foundation which started TYDTWD has officially changed the program to Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work. The stated reason for this change in focus is something I imagine you will agree with wholeheartedly.
The program is now dedicated to raising issues of family in the workplace and has no specific gender focus whatsoever. So when you say that there are tydtw people who oppose taking sons, I'm not sure who you mean.

winterwooskie

there were tydtw people around the time of the controversy about whether it should be for sons and daughters who had a problem with including boys because they beleived it took away from their goal or diminished it in some way.

ImGod

These kids need to grow up on a farm where every day was take your kids to work day, except they gave you work to do. There are no child labor laws for farmers. I was operating heavy machinery semi-supervised by 7 or 8 and on my own by 10. Summers were 6 days of working and 1 day off (after church of course). Simple rules. You don�t work. You don�t eat.

But there were other things that the city kids never got to do like riding horses daily to bring in the cattle, riding 4-wheelers and dirt bikes, shooting at stuff from your back yard (okay maybe they do this), driving loaded grain trucks to town when you�re 13 (that�s the best way to learn to drive a stick shift, tons of grain and a high/low axle), etc., etc.

Ah, the good old days.

godfry n. glad

Um...yeah... I had an economics professor who was fond of pointing out the huge change in socio-economic status that children in the United States had experienced during the 20th century. They went from low-cost farm labor to household pets.

godfry

wildernesse

I never went with my mom to work because: she was a Teacher! Woohoo! I would get out of school to go to. . .School! Yeah. . . or she was the principal (of my own school!). My brother went to work with my mom from 1st grade to 5th, she was his principal. How exciting.

And my dad works at a natural gas compressor station--not really a conducive environment for kids to be running around. Safety measures for eyes and ears and engines that keep natural gas at high pressure to keep it moving. Also, he worked different shifts--and the graveyard shift probably wouldn't be the greatest thing for kids either.

My problem with take your kids to work days is that it works best for middle american corporate workers--and who really wants their kids to grow up and sit in a cubicle and hope that the downsizing isn't this week? "Here, Sally, this is a taste of complete and utter hell! Don't you want to go to college for 4 years so that you have no personal space or privacy except for the 3 hours you are stuck in your car commuting everyday? Those four years will be the best part of your life, it's all grey carpet walls and banker's boxes from then on out. Ooh, wait right here, Daddy/Mommy's got to go grovel before the nitwit who runs the joint."

I can't imagine anything more uplifting for little Sally.

--tibac

brighid

My husband�s company sponsor a very organized and fun event for the children for , �Take your kid to work day.� In years past the kids got to be interviewed in a real TV studio and take the video home as a souvenir. This year they worked on developing their own company, creating a name for it, a mission statement, logos, etc. My son really liked it. Each group of children got to work with an adult volunteer from the company. They have movies, games and food for the kids throughout the day and my son looks forward to it every year.

My son has spent many a day with me on a Saturday morning when I�ve had to work overtime so he is no stranger to what goes on at my job, but it definitely took some of the mystery out of my husband�s job.

Brighid