Girls’ Day Out
When Mitchell David Hernandez came into the world Thursday morning all bellowing and covered with goop, he encountered an unusual welcoming committee composed of two wide-eyed teenage girls who were getting an intense look at the world of work.
“That was the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen,” said 15-year-old Cia Hunter, a Marlborough School student with doctorly aspirations who spent the day at Glendale Adventist Medical Center.
In Orange County, callers to Virgin Interactive were greeted by some surprisingly youthful voices as girls took turns answering phones at the Irvine headquarters of the video and computer game maker.
“I’m going to work here. I want to do what my mom’s doing,” declared Jenna Lamoureux, 10, a fourth-grader at Taft Elementary School in Santa Ana who was helping her receptionist mother Joanne with a crisp, “Good morning, Virgin Interactive.”
Thirty high school students from the Fulfillment Fund scholarship program went shopping at Century City Shopping Center--not for shoes or clothes but for the mall itself in a real estate exercise. The girls toured the mall (which isn’t actually for sale), examined store construction, debated the right tenant mix and delved into due diligence.
Girls took over the world Thursday, or so it seemed at some companies as millions of girls, and a certain number of boys, marched into offices, factories, hospitals, hotels, construction sites and even the White House during the fifth annual Take Our Daughters to Work Day, created by the Ms. Foundation for Women to boost the self-esteem and job prospects of young women.
The turnout and media attention grows every year for the day, which has become an institution at workplaces throughout the country. It’s also something of a cultural touchstone, with what-about-the-boys? anxieties pushing some companies to call their efforts “Career Day” or “Take Our Children to Work Day.”
The Ms. Foundation, which addresses the boys with a curriculum for those left behind in the classroom, took the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the day to reemphasize the girls. The New York-based foundation started the daughters day in 1993.
San Francisco-based Chevron Corp. handles the controversy by alternating Daughters Day with Sons Day, after an overwhelming response in 1994 when the oil company opened the day to girls and boys, spokeswoman Marla Lee said.
This year, more than 800 girls visited 11 Chevron offices nationwide, trying on safety equipment, making nylon in a test tube and learning how computer-generated maps help the company search for oil, Lee said.
The day is more than just fun, said Joanne Lamoureux at Virgin Interactive. Seeing firsthand what their parents do is necessary to get children thinking about their own careers, she said.
“How else are they going to learn what’s out there? You can talk to them all you want but unless they see it themselves it’s not going to sink in,” Lamoureux said.
The pretend purchase of Century City Shopping Center was put together by a professional organization called Commercial Real Estate Women of Los Angeles in place of the group’s annual fashion show, said board member Deborah S. Schmidt, a lawyer with Appel & Associates in Century City.
At Deloitte & Touche’s Costa Mesa office, 25 girls held a teleconference with daughters of employees at the firm’s Chicago office.
The girls got rundowns on the firm’s accounting and consulting services and filled out federal income tax forms--an experience they described as boring.
Courtney Montgomery, 15, of Costa Mesa, said it was good to see where her mother works. But she added that she’s heading in a different direction than Deloitte.
“I have my heart set on being a musician,” Courtney said. “Singing on a street corner.”
Other businesses didn’t fuss much with official activities.
Virgin welcomed daughters but is planning a broader family career day and open house later this year.
“It’s not going to be just mother and daughter,” said Virgin executive assistant Kirsten Kaa, who brought her 21-month-old daughter Natalie to work Thursday.
Marlborough School, a private school in Hancock Park, sent all 500 of its students out into the community to try out different jobs.
Dr. Carol Burton, an obstetrician whose mother was also an obstetrician, allowed Marlborough students Cia Hunter and Aran Paik, 17, to observe a caesarean section birth at Glendale Adventist Medical Center.
The two girls went into the operating room planning to be doctors, and their career aspirations appeared unshaken despite a shaky moment when Burton was making initial incisions with an electric instrument.
“What’s that smell?” Cia asked.
“It’s the smell of burning flesh,” answered Burton, matter-of-factly.
But both girls made it through the procedure without flinching and were just a few feet away when Burton reached in and brought Mitchel David Hernandez--7 pounds, 9 ounces--into the world.
“I’ve wanted to be a doctor since I was 5 years old, but today really affirmed this,” Cia said.
Times staff writer David Colker contributed to this report.
