CMI press clipping

SECTION: VIEWPOINTS, Pg. A39
LENGTH: 681 words
HEADLINE: Ten Years Later, Girls Still Need Their Own Day
BYLINE: By Nell Merlino; The Ms; Foundation is officially changing it to Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day

BODY:
TAKE OUR DAUGHTERS to Work Day, which is being observed this year next Thursday, was designed to make girls more visible, valued and heard.

As someone who helped create this groundbreaking initiative for the Ms. Foundation for Women in 1993, I am happy to report that girls and women are more visible than ever before.

My proudest professional achievement is that in each of the past 10 years, in almost every newspaper across the country, girls are featured in photographs and on television news exploring their life's ambitions. From the WNBA, to Oprah Winfrey on the cover of Fortune magazine, to the 9 million women who own businesses, to the 13 female U.S. senators, girls can see women playing an active leadership role. I am also acutely aware, as I am sure the parents of daughters are, that there is much more work to do to improve how girls are valued and heard. It strikes me as premature, after only 10 years, that the Ms. Foundation has chosen to officially change Take Our Daughters to Work Day to Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day in 2003.

It's like the invention of "New" Coke. To refresh your memory, New Coke was invented because Coke got scared of Pepsi. Loyal Coke customers didn't like it, and neither did the Pepsi people.

Nothing good gets developed out of fear - for girls or for boys.

Why argue with the success of Take Our Daughters to Work Day, which a staggering one-third of all Americans have participated in, when girls continue to need encouragement and support to be treated equally? If low self-esteem is like a cancer that continues to haunt girls, would you give boys chemotherapy just to be fair?

A staggering 80 percent of the 53.7 million women in the American workforce continue to make $25,000 or less a year. That is a cold $10,000 less than the average man makes. What 21st-century parents think that their daughter deserves less pay than their son for the same work?

That $10,000 can be the difference between living in a safe neighborhood or not; the difference between qualifying for credit cards, mortgages, and small business loans or not; and the difference between living below the poverty level for a family of four or not. If these numbers don't make the case for Take Our Daughters to Work Day, I don't know what does.

Venture capital investments in women-owned businesses are as paltry as the low wages their salaried sisters receive. In 1999, only 7 percent of the approximately $12 billion invested in new ventures went to women-owned businesses, and many women continue to have more trouble than men securing small business loans to start or expand businesses.

And when it comes to women and girls being heard, some very powerful men are still not listening. The Catholic Church, which bars women from leadership, is spinning out of control with multi-million dollar sex scandals across the United States and around the globe.

At Enron, the home of the largest bankruptcy in history, where women's sexuality was rated by the men in leadership and thousands of people have lost jobs, life savings, pensions and investments, women tried to sound the alarm. Marie Brenner writes in April's Vanity Fair, "It was the women of Enron ... who detected the web of intrigue, predicted the fall, had written futile letters to board members, tipped financial analysts, and tried to avert financial collapse." Women at the decision-making tables could help avert these kinds of moral and financial disasters for girls and boys.

The secret to the success of Take Our Daughters to Work Day has always been the women in the workplace who know how hard things can be on the job. They want to share their experiences and help girls get ready for the opportunities and challenges they face.

A great case can be made that work still needs to done to help girls be confident and strong. The New Coke of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day won't cut it.

Hold out, hold on and stand up for full and total equality. Take your daughter to work.

GRAPHIC: Photo - Nell Merlino

LOAD-DATE: April 18, 2002