Carnegie Mellon University

Staff Council

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Staff Council  ›  What We Do  ›  Take Our Children to Work  ›  About CMU's Event

Take Our Daughters to Work Day started in 1993 by the Ms Foundation in response to disturbing research on adolescent girls’ loss of self confidence, and their declining interest in math, science, and technology.  After 10 successful years of a Take Our Daughters to Work Day program, the national organization expanded it to include boys in 2003 when it became Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work.

CMU has participated in this event since 1998 and has followed the national foundation guidelines by calling it “CMU Take Our Daughters to Work Day,” then “CMU Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day,” and by promoting the national theme for the day.  In the last few years the committee that organizes this event had been receiving feedback from the campus community regarding the inclusivity of the name. Many did not feel that “Daughters and Sons” accurately reflected all of our community here, and asked that we update the name to be more inclusive.

Our CMU committee has reached out to the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day National Foundation regarding this issue.  Their response was as follows:


“At Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Foundation we believe in learning, all kinds of learning for all kids and adults, whether it’s at home, in the classroom or in the workforce. Learning is the key to empowering our life chances.
Our Board of directors have been discussing this as well as many other things, at this point no decision has been made. I will put you on a list to notify as soon as a decision is made.”

As you can see the National Foundation has also been aware of this issue and are in the process of determining whether to change the name of the national event.  In the meantime the committee here at CMU has decided that we will update the name effective February 25,2020, for our event. This year we will be calling the event “CMU’s Take Our Children to Work Day.”    

The committee benchmarked similar programs, and agreed we needed to make a change to the name of the event for this year.  If you have a better idea of what this event could be called in the future we would encourage you to reach out to toctwd@andrew.cmu.edu and let us know.  

We want to thank the campus community for their continued involvement in this event, last year we had over 125 volunteers from the community, and this year we will need at least that many again.  If you are interested in participating as a presenter or volunteer please contact toctwd@andrew.cmu.edu.  This event is not possible without your continued support, thank you to everyone who volunteered or participated in the past!

Do you have an idea for a better name?

If you have a suggestion for what this event could be called in the future please contact toctwd@andrew.cmu.edu and let us know!