Take a Girl Child to Work Day is an annual corporate social investment event, held in South Africa since 2003. Companies involved organise for female learners (school pupils), usually from disadvantaged backgrounds, to spend the day at their place of work on the last Thursday of May. The initiative is organised by Cell C, a cellular service provider, and endorsed by the South African Department of Education. It has been called South Africa's "largest collaborative act of volunteerism".
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Rationale and goals
Despite advances in legislation, the majority of women in South Africa still suffer from gender inequality as they lack the skills to make them economically independent. Women remain under-represented in the formal economy, and more so in corporate leadership positions. This is because there are career opportunities that were previously not accessible to women, and other opportunities that individual women may not be aware of.
Additionally, there are challenges and constraints faced by female South African children:
Thus, the goal of the Take a Girl Child to Work Day initiative is to "deepen the thinking of the girl child with regard to their infinite roles in society, enhance her self-esteem, inspire and motivate her to reach her full potential and through exposure to diverse careers and positive role models assist her to prepare for the world of work". Additionally, Cell C believes that the impact will be far-reaching, as "benefits will be shared as she pass[es] them onto her children, her community and her country".
Each year there is a theme for participants to focus on. For example, in 2009 the theme was "Change your world", a challenge for participants to be self-empowered and "Be the agent of the change [they] want to see in [their] world", taken from the quote by Mahatma Gandhi.
Level of involvement
Companies may register under different levels of involvement as defined by Cell C:
Additional initiatives
Additional initiatives have also been set up to complement the original event:
Male children
This initiative focuses one whole day on empowering female children, because of their historical and current disadvantages (see Rationale and goals). However, male children are not ignored. They are asked to reflect on their relationship with women, and informed about what behaviours are not acceptable. Exercises given in the handbook are explicitly aimed at both female and male children.
Criticisms and concerns
The criticisms and concerns of any corporate social responsibility initiative also apply to this one. Cell C does not directly counter any concerns on its website, but proposes many positive outcomes and seeks feedback from participants.
In her article Girl children in the workplace - reflections of a mother in the workplace, Illana Melzner argues that the initiative does not address the demands and responsibility of motherhood, nor encourage equal parenting. Given that 80% of women under 50 in South Africa are mothers, she feels that this is the cause of under-representation, rather than a lack of awareness. She feels the responsibility of male partners (in heterosexual relationships) is not given any attention, and suggests scope of the initiative be expanded to "Take a Girl Child to Work and Make a Boy Child Cook the Food, Look after Small Children, Clean the House and Do the Shopping Day". Finally she notes that (in 2005) Cell C itself does not offer day care facilities for its employees, and like many South African corporations, has unequal parental leave.