With so much dissonant information, Bingham says it's no surprise girls may come to conflicting and negative conclusions about work. Statistics indicate, for instance, that 50 percent of young women today will at some time support a family on their own, and US Census figures show that 54.8 percent of women work before their child is 1. Yet fewer girls than boys participate in career education classes in high school, and teen-age girls typically say they do not expect to be working outside the home when they have children under age 6. Girls who don't expect to work, who don't want to work or who aren't prepared to work are most likely to end up on welfare, according to Ms. Foundation spokeswoman Lauren Wechsler. She sees ''Take Our Daughters to Work'' as welfare prevention.
Girls limit their own expectations.
They dream of one job, but settle for another,'' says Bingham, an issue she says TODW addresses. Of course, there are girls with high career aspirations, girls who do achieve. Every girl who wants to be a scientist has to jump up and down a lot more times than a boy,'' she says. Given the dilemma of work and family, that's the solution they see as viable,'' she says. While a special day to take daughters to work is not a panacea, researchers say there is evidence from the first two years that it can be an antidote.