THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604190091
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Comment
SOURCE: BY ANN G. SJOERDSMA
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
``TAKE OUR Daughters to Work Day,'' occurring this Thursday, annoys me.
Annoys me, a daughter who grew up immersed in her parents' work. Who modeled her own career after her mother's. By right, I should be lining up with the daughter ranks.
And that's not all: ``Secretaries Day,'' another event for working women, also annoys me. It comes up on Wednesday.
So what's the rub here?
My conclusion: Both highly publicized ``holidays'' attest to how far women haven't come. And both skirt important underlying questions about respect and fairness in the workplace.
Sponsored by the no-boys-allowed Ms. Foundation for Women, Take Our Daughters to Work Day is in its third year. Secretaries Day was founded in 1953 by Professional Secretaries International.
While both founders seek to enhance women's self-esteem and to promote their value and acceptance in the workplace, both argue form over substance. Buzz words - the Ms. Foundation encourages girls to be ``visible, valued and heard'' - over hard work.
Instead of ``empowering'' girls through special treatment, I would rather the Ms. Foundation delved into the resentment, confusion, bias, fear and other charged emotions that attend the changing nature of male-female relationships. It needs to educate girls about some hard realities of employment, while also bolstering their egos.
In an age of enlightenment, symbolic events like TODTW Day and Secretaries Day would be unnecessary. Insulting even. They exist now only because women are not equals in the work force with men. Women have to prove their competence again and again, while men's competence is often taken for granted.
Why take daughters to work and not sons, who also need to be exposed to the everyday work culture? Because sons have an assumptive right to a place in the culture. Daughters don't.
Why honor secretaries and not teachers or doctors? Because secretaries, 98.9 percent of whom are women - so says the U.S. Labor Dept. - are undervalued, underpaid and subject to many day-to-day indignities.
Instead of avoiding serious problems with the fanfare of consciousness-raising events, I would like to see a united - men and women - confrontation. Both sexes can gain.
Let's go beyond the boys-inclusive alternative now being suggested by major corporations of ``Take a Child to Work Day.'' Let's show and tell children the truth - at school and at home. What does it take to make it in today's work force? How do sex and gender roles figure into the ``make-it'' equation? And how can the next generation improve conditions?
9to5, the National Association of Working Women, has proposed ``National Office Workers Day,'' in lieu of Secretaries Day. Enough with the contrived celebrations. According to the Labor Department, the median weekly salary for the nation's 3.6 million secretaries is $385. Instead of roses and Hallmark cards, how about raises, respect and on-the-job training?
Recognizing a woman simply for having a particular job, regardless of her performance, is patronizing. So, too, is parading cute young things through offices and serving them refreshments once a year.
Yes, I admit, good can come of TODTW Day. But I also wonder, how many of the girls go home to sex-typed ideas, espoused by parents, that eventually hinder their progress? (This assumes girls even have a workplace they can visit.)
And what about adolescent boys, who overall are at greater risk than girls to drop out of school or commit suicide?
Instead of taking ``our'' daughter to work, how about teaching her every day to believe in herself so that she's prepared to deal with on-the-job crises? ``Our'' sons can use the same lesson. That would not annoy me. MEMO: Ann G. Sjoerdsma is a lawyer, and book editor of The Virginian-Pilot.
by CNB