The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least ValuedIn 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 the most current research in economics, history, child development, and law, Ann Crittenden proves that although women have been liberated, mothers have not. The costs of motherhood are everywhere apparent. College-educated women pay a "mommy tax" of over a million dollars in lost income when they have a child. Family law deprives mothers of financial equality in marriage. Stay-at-home mothers and their work are left out of the GDP, the labor force, and the social safety net. With passion and clarity, Crittenden demonstrates that proper rewards for mothers' essential contributions would only enhance the general welfare. Bold, galvanizing, full of innovative solutions, The Price of Motherhood offers a much-needed accounting of the price that mothers pay for performing the most important job in the world. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Where We Are Now | 13 |
A Conspiracy of Silence | 28 |
How Mothers Work Was Disappeared The Invention of the Unproductive Housewife | 45 |
The Truly Invisible Hand | 65 |
The Mommy Tax | 87 |
The Dark Little Secret of Family Life | 110 |
What Is a Wife Worth? | 131 |
The Welfare State Versus a Caring State | 186 |
The Toughest Job Youll Ever Love | 202 |
An Accident Waiting to Happen | 218 |
It Was Her Choice | 233 |
How to Bring Children Up Without Putting Women Down | 256 |
Notes | 275 |
Acknowledgments | 305 |
309 | |
Other editions - View all
The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still ... Ann Crittenden No preview available - 2001 |
The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still ... Ann Crittenden No preview available - 2010 |
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