Girls' Day – Future Prospects for Girls

Tomorrow is Girl's Day in Germany and many other countries! A great opportunity for young girls to peek into jobs that are not typical "female jobs".

On Girls' Day, female students from grades 5 to 10 can get an insight into vocational fields that girls seldom consider as careers. Primarily technical enterprises, companies with technical departments and technical training facilities, universities, and research centers organize an open day for girls.
On average, girls have better grades than boys [1]. Still, in scientific or technical study programs and professions such as engineering or computer sciences, females represent the minority. Girls' Day encourages schools, media and employers to change their common attitudes towards vocational orientation.

In 2001, the first Girls' Day was initiated by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research and the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. The idea came from the American “Take Our Daughters To Work Day”, in which since 1993 schoolgirls in the US visit the workplace of their parents or acquaintances for a day.

Girls' Day Is Effective
Since then, Girls' Day has become the largest career orientation project for female students. In 2016, nearly 9,600 institutions offered about 100,000 places for female students.
The vocational choices of girls are influenced in a very positive way. For companies, Girls' Day has evolved as an important instrument of their recruitment policy. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in female professionals in technical fields. Now, the growth in employment of women is stronger than that of men in almost all scientific and technical professions.
Want some solid numbers? 40% of the girls would like to do an internship or get training in one of the participating companies. 33% of the participating organizations get applications for internships from women who participated in Girls' Day as a student. One in every five participating organizations ends up employing female candidates [2]!  

International Girls' Day
Meanwhile, Girls' Day takes place in more than twenty different countries, among them many in Europe, but also Japan and South Korea, and more recently Ethiopia and Egypt.
For more information, visit http://www.girls-day.de

[1] Voyer and Voyer, Psychol Bull, 2014
[2] www.girls-day.de

By Claudia Willmes, PhD Student AG Eickholt / AG Schmitz