• Background
• Overview
• Schedule

See our behind-the-scenes pictures of today's event!

        

Girls

Boys

Parents and Educators

Archives

Background

The top five fastest growing occupations between 1998 and 2008 are information technology occupations, which require advanced computer skills. However, girls enroll more in clerical and data entry computer courses, the contemporary equivalent of typing classes, than in advanced computer classes.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 1999; American Institutes of Research, Gender Gaps: Where Schools Still Fail Our Children, 1998.

NASA's 6th Annual Virtual Take Our Daughters to Work Day coincides with the national initiative founded by the Ms. Foundation. In 1996, NASA produced it's first Virtual Daughters Day - a bold experiment in on-line mentoring. Each year as interest and participation in our event increased, we heightened our on-line opportunities. We have progressed from text based interactive web chats to interactive remote live streaming video.

To advance our mentoring efforts we broadened our panels in 1997 and 1998 to include select female leaders from a broad spectrum of professions outside the NASA realm, including:

• Carol Bartz, highest ranking female CEO in the software industry
• Leslie Ann Jones, Scoring Manager at Skywalker Sound and winner of 11 Academy Awards
• Stephanie Hermann, Principal Ballerina
• Nancy Ditz, Olympic Marathoner
• Lynda Plettner, 6 time winner of the Alaskan Iditerod race
• Jessica Stern, expert on weapons of mass destruction and model for the star of the film Peacemaker
• Ruth Simmons, current president of Browne University
• Chitra Divakiruni, best selling author
• Judy Woodruff, Prime Anchor with CNN
• Susan Love, foremost authority on Breast Cancer research.

Last year we chose to draw focus back on our NASA visionaries and were honored to include in our esteemed roster:

• Shannon Lucid, who holds the space flight endurance record for her work on the Space Station Mir for 6 months,
• Rose Grymes, Assistant Director of NASA Astrobiology Institute,
• Eileen Collins, first woman ever selected to be a space shuttle pilot and the first woman to command a space shuttle,
• Peggy Wilhide, Director of NASA Public Affairs,
• Donna Shirley, director of the Mars Pathfinder Mission.

And now for the year 2001 - A Space Odyssey - NASA's time to revel in the individuals behind our most innovative technologies, the role models and mentors who eloquently validate to our young people that knowledge is more than power. It' s FUN being smart and loving your job each and every day.

Whether you are a young boy wondering why there is a day that seems to exclude you, a young girl looking for inspiration, a parent attempting to give your children options, or an educator looking for ways to inspire your students... you ' ve come to the right place. NASA's Virtual Take Our Daughters to Work Day offers students, parents, and schools worldwide the opportunity to discuss and celebrate career options and to share the Take Our Daughters to Work Day experience with all children.

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Overview

The Virtual Take Our Daughters to Work Day is comprised of four interrelated components:

• Research
  Profiles and biographies of the featured experts are available for research prior to the event, and can be found by linking from the featured woman's name on the schedule page. You are strongly encouraged to research the featured women prior to the events in order to form appropriate questions that cannot be answered by another source. Archives and links to additional interactive events and resources are also included in their profiles.
• Preregistration and Participation
  Although preregistration for the interactive events has been essential in the past, this year you do not need to register. Although an unlimited number of participants can take part in the events, the number of questions selected by the mentors to answer is limited. To have a better chance of having your question selected, proper research and thoughtful questions are advised. There are specific directions that you need to become familiar with prior to the chats, forum and webcasts. The schedule has links to each event.
• Educational Resources
  To make the most of your on-line experience, we have provided lesson plans with objectives and standards, links to other events being offered on the day, and related resources to enrich the opportunities for participants. These can be found on the Parents and Educators pages.
• Follow-up
  All contents and information from these pages and this event will be archived and available as a link from the Women of NASA archives page. Please see the individual links for the particular mentor you are interested in or the main archive page. The archived events are a rich source of information when studying careers, gender equity, women's issues, and information specific to each woman's profession.

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Questions and comments about this event and other Women of NASA events can be sent to: tkrieg@quest.arc.nasa.gov