Mothers and fathers across Iowa may have a little extra help on the job today as it’s “Take Our Daughters to Work Day.” Pam Patton is the President of the Drake University Women’s Forum and helped organize the Des Moines University’s events for the day. She says the idea is to show girls all the possibilities available to them. She says they also want to boost the self esteem of girls.She says you should not only bring your daughter to work, you should encourage her to get involved.Women have come a long way in our society, but Patton says a special day for girls is still needed as there are still a lot of self esteem problems for girls in junior high and high school.Patton brought her daughter to work with her even though the Des Moines School District isn’t recognizing the day. She says her daughter will take an unexcused absence.Drake University has several events planned for the day, including a talk by the director of the Americorps program. The Sioux City School system and the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce are urging parents to not participate in “Take Our Daughters to Work Day.” Sioux City Superintendent Larry Williams says the event was doing more harm than good.He says the event was disruptive because some kids weren’t in class and there was uneven participation. Williams says there are plenty of other “job shadow” programs where kids can learn about potential careers.He says in some cases things weren’t very well planned out, so the student stood around at their parent’s workplace with nothing to do. Williams says students who leave school to visit their parent’s jobs will receive an unexcused absence, but won’t be punished.The day will count against a student’s days missed, but won’t be a problem unless the student has already missed too many days.
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