Millions of young women ages 9 to 15 across the United States are learning to argue legal cases, design office towers, edit magazines and travel into space -- among other things -- Thursday, April 27, 2000 during the eighth annual Take Our Daughters To Work Day. The program, created by the Ms. Foundation for Women, seeks to increase girls’ self-esteem during their adolescent years, and expand their ideas of what is possible by encouraging parents to bring their daughters into the workplace.

The Ms. Foundation has been working to improve women’s opportunities for 25 years. In addition to the Take Our Daughters To Work program, they have developed numerous public education campaigns on women's economic security, health and safety for girls and leadership training for young women.

“The program began when an influx of research indicated that adolescent and preadolescent girls were having a progressively difficult time establishing their identities and developing self-esteem,” says Ms. Foundation spokesperson Kelly Parisi. “Members of the Ms. Foundation and the Harvard Project traveled the country talking to women about girls' development. They found that public consensus was overwhelming: today’s grown women want to improve the adolescent experience for their daughters.”

After two years of experimenting and developing ideas, the Ms. Foundation hired a communications consultant to help them create the Take Our Daughters To Work program. The goal was to give young women a positive idea of their role in the workplace, and to raise adult awareness of the issues girls face in the pre- and mid-adolescent stages of their lives.

“We decided to focus on work in order to emphasize the importance of girls' abilities rather than their appearance,” Parisi says. “We thought a day at work would heighten girls' aspirations and help them make the connection between academic success and success in the real world.”

Shortly after the first event in April 1993, the Ms. Foundation was flooded with thousands of phone calls from interested parents, and its popularity has sky-rocketed ever since. In 1999 an estimated 56 million parents participated in the program, 40 percent of them men.

“In the past, programs for girls have not been effective when they were originally designed for boys," Parisi says. “But the issues facing adolescent girls are particular to them. They need a distinctive approach.”

The theme for this year’s Take Our Daughters To Work Day is "Free To Be You and Me."

Parisi explains that “by selecting this theme, we are encouraging workplace sponsors to create activities that will help girls think about diversity and gender equality in the new millennium.”

The reality of gender equality in the 21st century is a sobering issue. According to Bureau of Labor statistics, the number of working women in America has expanded from 18.4 million in 1950 to 63 million as of 1997; and 56 percent of new workforce entrants are female.

Women have made incredible advances in nearly every occupation since the beginning of the civil rights movement, but they still earn only 76-cents to every dollar earned by men and they are significantly absent from America’s top boardrooms, executive positions and high-tech jobs. The 1999 Catalyst Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners Report revealed that less than 15 percent of American companies count a woman among their top five earners, and women hold only 77 of the 2,353 top-paying spots.

According to the Bureau of Labor, the five fastest-growing occupations in the United States are information technology positions that require advanced computer skills. However, the New York Times reported that girls made up only 17 percent of high school students who took the advanced placement exam in computer science in 1998. As a result, Take Our Daughters To Work 2000 will focus on technology jobs and the computer industry.

A number of high-tech sponsors are slated to participate in the event, providing Net-based activities for young women around the country.

Most notable among this year’s supporters is NASA Quest’s Women of NASA Project which will host live "QuestChats" throughout the day on various topics, featuring discussions with one select woman each hour from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. PDT.

GirlZone.com will provide chats and forums throughout the day and has joined forces with career assessment site, AdvantageIS.com, to offer an online career-interest survey called Teen Track (a service which usually costs $20); and Cool Pages, a woman-owned design firm in Round Rock, TX, will conduct Web-related activities including a “walk-through” tour that shows girls first-hand what it takes to develop a Web site.

Last year an estimated 19 million girls spent the third Thursday of April accompanying a parent or mentor to work and engaging in various activities designed to help them rise to the challenge of life the modern world.

Of course, the program has been a big hit with young girls. “It’s one of my favorite days of the year,” says 13-year-old Erin, whose mother is a pediatrician in Portland, Oregon. “ This will be my third year in a row. I just love to see what my mom does and watch all the action. It makes me realize that work doesn’t have to be a drag, and that I can do whatever I really want.”

Parents or business owners who would like to contact the organization for more details can call the Ms. Foundation’s toll-free number: (800) 676-7780.