Guest Author - Sonja Meyer

If you have children and work, you have probably heard about the Take Our Daughters To Work Day. Sponsored by the Ms. Foundation for Women for the past decade, the project encouraged employees to bring daughters on a designated day to witness what parents do and to encourage them to explore career opportunities.

The goals were good. Girls certainly need role models and support to go after their dream jobs.

But, for some parents, the day was a little uncomfortable. Where were the boys? Although many females have been and continue to be disadvantaged in the workplace, some employees were uneasy about leaving the boys out.

And the unsettled ones were not just parents of sons. As a mother of only girls, now three of them, I was working in the newsroom of a daily community newspaper a couple of years ago and I wondered what I would do when my daughters were old enough for the program. Something just didn't seem right.

Some fathers in the office also voiced, quietly, their concerns. They supported the purpose of widening horizons for girls. Many participated, bringing their daughters. But they also reflected on their boys' futures and on their own lives. Although newsmen whose parenting days were over may have been workaholic fathers, these new dads, in their 30s and 40s, were doing their best to balance home and office. A couple staggered their shifts with their wives so one parent was always home with the kids. Others made a point of going to eat dinner and say good night to their children before rushing back to get the paper out.

Without much fanfare, my employer, like many others, created its own version of the day and developed programs for boys as well as daughters.

And now, the Ms. Foundation project is evolving as well. Organizers are launching a Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day on April 24. They say this is not an extension of the traditional day, but a new day in its own right. Rather than just allowing boys to tag along, activities are being developed to allow both genders to explore work and home issues and think creatively about solutions.

"For girls to take full advantage of the opportunities the program helped to create, boys' lives must change as well," Foundation President Marie C. Wilson declares on the group's web site. The foundation also notes a study by the Families And Work Institute that found not only did 81 percent of girls say they will reduce work hours to have children, but almost 60 percent of the boys did as well.

The foundation also says men who brought daughters to work complained that they themselves were often discouraged from taking time for family needs. "Men's stories echo what working women have been saying for decades --- taking an active caregiving role in your family life can limit your job possibilities and chances for advancement."

It's refreshing to see a program motivating both boys and girls, men and women, to brainstorm ways to balance work and family and to share both roles between the genders.