Thursday, April 24, 2008

take our concept, make it not work day


I just have to blog about this. I was on the launch team for the first Take Our Daughters to Work Day in 1993. It was a marketing concept, actually, to promote the Ms. Foundation for Women, which many people were confusing with Ms. Magazine. Ms. Foundation had a very savvy director in those days who understood the power of visual, who admitted that "Thelma and Louise did more for the women's movement than all the research reports we've put out in the past 20 years."

TODTWD (as we called it in beta form) was meant to change the way women were viewed in this country by providing a powerful visual: females in places where they were rarely seen, in boardrooms, CEO offices, the front page of the New York Times (where, bogglingly, girls had never appeared), even the Oval Office. The day wasn't designed to "leave boys out." In fact, we designed school curriculums for K-12 boys which addressed the value of "homework": childcare, housekeeping, etc, work that is usually associated with women.

The next year boys (and parents of boys) claimed it was sexist to let girls get the fun jobs, while boys did the drek. So, now we have Take Our Children to work day. The purpose of which is...to give teachers a day off?

6 comments:

Alan Wolk said...

Actually most NYC area schools are closed this week in conjunction with the 2-part Spring Break program (1 week in February over President's Day and 1 week towards the end of April)

So it's the at-home parents and babysitters who get the day off today ;)

Ad Broad, oldest working writer in advertising said...

Sheesh. My kids are gone for only months and already their school schedules are a distant memory. Good point, Toad. Hope your tadpole had fun today. ;)

Anonymous said...

My standard line to the kiddies whenever they show up at the job is: "Make sure you do good in school so you don't end up in a cubicle like us."

Anonymous said...

You perform a public service, Studio Maven.

Ad Broad, oldest working writer in advertising said...

Actually, I think Auntie's suggestion is even more of a public service. ; )

Joker said...

Oh why wasn't I lucky enough to run into a Studio Maven when I was a child? Or maybe I did and didn't appreciate the value of truth I was getting offered. Egads.