The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued

by Ann Crittenden

Overview

THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER THAT CHANGED AMERICA'S VIEW OF MOTHERHOOD

In the pathbreaking tradition of Backlash and The Second Shift, this provocative book shows how mothers are systematically disadvantaged and made dependent by a society that exploits those who perform its most critical work. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and research in economics, history, child development, and law, Ann Crittenden proves definitively that although women have been liberated, mothers have not.

Bold, galvanizing, and full of innovative solutions, The Price of Motherhood was listed by the Chicago Tribune as one of the Top Ten Feminist Literary Works since the publication of Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique. This "bracing call to arms" (Elle) offers a much-needed accounting of the price that mothers pay for performing the most important job in the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312655402
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	11/23/2010
Edition description:	10th Anniversary Edition
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,050,725
Product dimensions:	8.14(w) x 11.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Ann Crittenden is the author of Killing the Sacred Cows: Bold Ideas for a New Economy. A former reporter for The New York Times and a Pulitzer Prize nominee, she has also been a financial writer for Newsweek, a visiting lecturer at M.I.T. and Yale, and an economics commentator on CBS News. Her articles have appeared in Fortune, The Nation, Foreign Affairs, McCalls, and Working Woman, among others. She lives with her husband and son in Washington, D.C.

Read an Excerpt

A newspaper reporter told me that his wife used to be his boss before she quit to raise their two children. She now makes one-fourth of his salary, working as a part-time consultant. "It was her choice," he says.

But mothers' choices are not made in a vacuum. They are made according to rules mothers didn't write. Married working mothers pay the highest taxes in the country on their earned income, which powerfully affects their choice of whether to work or not. And what many mothers really want is a good part-time job, yet there is no rich and vibrant part-time labor market in the United States.

To most women choice is all about bad options and difficult decisions: your child or your profession; taking on the domestic chores or marital strife; a good night's sleep or time with your child; food on the table or your baby's safety; your right arm or your left.

Table of Contents

Preface viii

Introduction 1

1 Where We Are Now 13

2 A Conspiracy of Silence 28

3 How Mothers' Work Was "Disappeared": The Invention of the Unproductive Housewife 45

4 The Truly Invisible Hand 65

5 The Mommy Tax 87

6 The Dark Little Secret of Family Life 110

7 What Is a Wife Worth? 131

8 Who Really Owns the Family Wage? 149

9 Who Pays for the Kids? 162

10 The Welfare State Versus a Caring State 186

11 The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love 202

12 An Accident Waiting to Happen 218

13 "It Was Her Choice" 233

Conclusion: How to Bring Children Up Without Putting Women Down 256

Notes 275

Acknowledgments 305

Index 308

Reading Group Guide

About this Guide
The following author biography and list of questions about The Price of Motherhood are intended as resources to aid individual readers and book groups who would like to learn more about the author and this book. We hope that this guide will provide you a starting place for discussion, and suggest a variety of perspectives from which you might approach The Price of Motherhood.

About the Book
In the pathbreaking tradition of Backlash and The Second Shift, this provocative book shows how mothers are systematically disadvantaged and made dependent by a society that exploits those who perform its most critical work. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and research in economics, history, child development, and law, Ann Crittenden proves definitively that although women have been liberated, mothers have not.

Bold, galvanizing, and full of innovative solutions, The Price of Motherhood was listed by the Chicago Tribune as one of the Top Ten Feminist Literary Works since the publication of Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique. This "bracing call to arms" (Elle) offers a much-needed accounting of the price that mothers pay for performing the most important job in the world.
About the Author
Ann Crittenden is the author of Killing the Sacred Cows: Bold Ideas for a New Economy. A former reporter for The New York Times and a Pulitzer Prize nominee, she has also been a financial writer for Newsweek, a visiting lecturer at M.I.T. and Yale, and an economics commentator on CBS News. Her articles have appeared in Fortune, The Nation, Foreign Affairs, McCalls, and Working Woman, among others. She lives with her husband and son in Washington, D.C.

1. Ann Crittenden states in her first footnote that she defines "mother" as any caregiver, male or female. How does that detail effect her portrayal of parenting issues throughout the book? What motivates society to assume that women are better candidates for motherhood than men?

2. For female readers: If you and your husband earned exactly the same amount, but neither of you were allowed to work part-time, would you feel comfortable becoming the wage-earner while your husband stayed home with the kids?

3. How much more would you be willing to pay in taxes if it meant that the U.S. would implement the Swedish plan, which grants mothers a full year of maternity leave with government subsidies equal to 75% of their salaries, and the French system of top-notch government-sponsored day care for all?

4. Compare your mother's parenting situation to yours. While things have improved for working women in the past 30 years, how do you think modern mothers and children fared? Are single parents and their children better or worse off than 30 years ago?

5. For married readers with children: If your spouse weren't in your life, how would you make up for his or her contribution toward raising your children? What safety nets, if any, would be available to you immediately?

6. Consider the story of Tony Williams, the foster child who was assumed to be retarded but, thanks to a chance adoption by loving parents, proved to be highly intelligent and even became mayor of Washington, D.C.. What do you think the outlook is for today's Tony Williamses? Is the well of "irrational" mother love in danger of running dry?

7. What do you consider to be the greatest hurdle in the road to equal rights and equal compensation for mothers?

8. Almost twice as many male CEOs as female CEOs have children. Do you believe that corporate America can change to accommodate working mothers? Are 80-hour work weeks really necessary for profit making, or are they the just a byproduct of irrational business philosophies?

9. Do you think that the number of children a father has, across multiple marriages, should be taken into consideration when determining child support amounts?

10. Did any of Ann Crittenden's statistics contradict your assumptions about motherhood? How did The Price of Motherhood affect your own decision-making and perspectives on parenting?

11. What has the price of motherhood been for you? Which of the books case studies resonated particularly strongly with you?

12. With waning support from the National Organization for Women, and no prospect of unionization, how can America's mothers create an audible voice for change?
13. Evaluate Ann Crittenden's proposals for change. Which ones would be most relevant to your situation? Which ones do you think are most likely to become enacted within the next five years?

Editorial Reviews

A landmark book.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Powerful and important . . . Written with a fine passion, The Price of Motherhood challenges the received ideas of economists, feminists, and conservatives alike and ought to be read by all of them.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A scathing indictment of policies that cheat mothers . . . Crittenden turns out a fresh, persuasive argument. Sure to inspire vigorous debate.” —Megan Rutherford, Time

“Fascinating . . . shows how women have been consistently denied social and, more important, monetary equality for raising their families.” —Susan Straight, Los Angeles Times

From the Publisher

This stunning read addresses the harsh reality of a society that, while glorifying motherhood in theory, relegates mothers to second-class status. In fact, the author identifies motherhood as the "single biggest risk factor for poverty in old age," a chilling assertion. With a mix of outrage and sensibility, Crittenden pinpoints the failings of society toward mothers and offers suggestions for improved treatment of this marginalized sector.

bn.com

Americans extol motherhood as "the most important job in the world," yet when couples divorce, mothers' and their children's standards of living usually decline precipitously, while fathers' rise. Crittenden, a former economics reporter for the New York Times, lays out the going rate for a woman's time: "$150 an hour or more as a professional, $50 an hour or more in some businesses, $15 an hour or so as a teacher, $5 to $8 an hour as a day-care worker and zero as a mother." Mothers (whose labor is not calculated in any official economic index) have no unemployment insurance to tide them over after divorce, no workers' compensation if they're injured and no Social Security benefits for the work they do, although a housekeeper or nanny paid for the same work would earn such benefits. In a breezy, journalistic style, Crittenden chronicles how the Industrial Revolution created the idea of the "unproductive housewife," how this concept penalizes women after divorce and how tax policies encourage mothers to quit work. Crittenden proposes several remedies, some available in most industrialized countries (paid maternity leave, flexible work hours for parents, universal preschool, free health coverage for children) and others seemingly utopian (Social Security credits for mothering, remedying the tax bias against married working mothers). This thoroughly documented and incisive book is must reading for women contemplating parenthood or divorce, and could prove an organizing tool for women's organizations. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Crittenden (Killing the Sacred Cows: Bold Ideas for a New Economy) draws upon hundreds of interviews to illustrate the irony of American society's praise of the "profession" of maternal love/care while undervaluing and exploiting mothers. Even as late as 1995, "married working mothers in the United States with children earned half of what their husbands earned." These economic dependents have been paying the dreaded "mommy tax": lost income (more than $1 million) owing to the "wages foregone by the primary parent." Obviously, well-educated, high-income individuals are the most severely penalized. This exemplary book covers the economic myths of motherhood through the stark testimonies of childcare hardships and financial inequality in marriage: "The pay $580 a month was barely enough to cover the bills for a family of four, but not enough for decent day care .Her ex-husband never paid a nickel in child support." A wonderful resource for students of economics, women's studies, politics, and for parents-to-be, this book should be a wake-up call to America. Kay Meredith Dusheck, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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