THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 27, 1995 TAG: 9504270340
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Some 5 to 7 million girls are expected to participate in today's Take Your Daughter to Work Day, a national program that aims to build self-esteem by allowing girls to see women at work.
But a new study shows that girls might not need the program as much as we might assume. And that Take Your Daughter to Work Day could use a change in focus.
Ashton Trice, a psychology professor at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, is completing a five-year study of 2,000 children. He's found that most of the girls have realistic career plans by the time they're in second grade, and they tend to keep them as they grow.
``It's kind of mythology that girls aspire to less than boys,'' Trice says.
``Girls very much want . . . professional careers,'' he says. ``Number 1 is lawyer, No. 2 is teacher, 3 is physician.''
In fact, Trice says, grade-school-age girls seem to have better ideas about careers than boys.
``That's one of the things that's concerning me, leaving boys out of this process,'' the professor says of Take Your Daughter to Work Day.
Trice's study indicates that among fourth- and sixth-graders, 60 percent of the girls aspire to careers that require a college education and are aware of the educational demands, compared to 40 percent of boys. Trice also found that children's horizons were more limited by social and economic status than by gender.
``Working-class boys drift from more realistic careers, wanting to play professional sports and be rock stars. By the sixth grade, 30 percent indicated there wasn't anything they wanted to be,'' Trice says.
Trice isn't calling for the cancellation of Take Your Daughter to Work Day.
``Kids who report they've been to work with an adult have a more sophisticated, more realistic understanding of the world of work and how they fit in,'' he says.
But he and others say the event is too narrowly focused.
Sponsored by the Ms. Foundation, the event has sparked controversy since its inception three years ago. Many call the girl-only focus reverse discrimination, and many companies have dropped the trademarked title in favor of ``Take Your Child to Work Day,'' including both girls and boys.
The event is based on a 1991 report by the American Association of University Women, ``How Schools Shortchange Girls.'' The report argued that American girls were receiving less teacher attention than boys and that curricula commonly ignored or stereotyped females.
``The glass ceiling begins not in the executive suite, but in kindergarten,'' says Ann Leidel, president of the American Association of University Women Education Foundation.
``This year, as school girls are welcomed into the corporate boardrooms and assembly plants that are America's economic engine, they will be encouraged to break free of gender stereotypes that limit their potential,'' Leidel says.
``Girls . . . don't have a problem getting through junior high and high school. It's when they try to get into the white-collar positions and they hit the glass ceiling,'' says Moses Newsome Jr., dean of the school of social work at Norfolk State University.
``There is still sex discrimination, but we have another problem. For low-income kids, they don't even make it through the school part. . . . We need to focus on both kids and go where the inner-city kids are, where the limitations are.''
Trice suggests that parents pay more attention to their children's career aspirations and use days like Take Your Daughter to Work Day to team children with professionals in careers they're interested in.
``If your child wants to be a doctor, the next time you take your kid to the pediatrician, ask the doctor to take a few minutes to tell your child some of the things that are relevant to the child,'' Trice says.
``Make kids aware of the careers around them.'' by CNB