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Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued
by Ann CrittendenBold and galvanizing, full of innovative solutions, The Price of Motherhood reveals the glaring disparity between the value created by mothers' work and the reward women receive for carrying out society's most important job.
In this provocative book, award-winning economics journalist Ann Crittenden argues that although women have been liberated, mothers have not. Drawing on hundreds of interviews from around the country, as well as the most current research in economics, sociology, history, child development,. and law, she shows how mothers are systematically disadvantaged and made dependent by a society that celebrates the labor of child-rearing but undervalues and even exploits those who perform it.
The price of motherhood is everywhere apparent. College-educated women pay a "mommy tax" of more than a million dollars in lost income when they have a child. Family law deprives mothers of financial equality in marriage. Most child care is excluded from the gross domestic product, at-home mothers are not counted in the labor force, and the social safety net simply leaves them out. With passion and clarity, Crittenden dismantles the principal argument for the status quo: that it's a woman's "choice." She demonstrates, on the contrary, that if mothers had more resources and respect, everyone -- including children -- would be better off.
Bold and galvanizing, full of innovative solutions, The Price of Motherhood reveals the glaring disparity between the value created by mothers' work and the reward women receive for carrying out society's most important job.
Arlie Hochschild, author of The Time Bind When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work
How do we bring children up without putting women down? In this important, well-written book, Ann Crittenden offers serious answers to this preeminent feminist -- and human -- question. A must read. Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Fear of Falling The Inner Life of the Middle Class
Motherhood may be sacred to Americans, but actual mothering is consistently devalued and disrespected. Ann Crittenden makes this point calmly and reasonably, with a rich abundance of reporting and without ever raising her voice. This profoundly important book challenges us to examine how much we really care about children -- or about the work of caring in general. Katha Pollitt, author of Reasonable Creatures Essays on Women and Feminism
Passionately argued and closely researched, this manifesto for mothers should spark plenty of debate over all the right issues. Nancy Folbre, author of The Invisible Heart Economics and Family Values
Mother's Day meets Gross Domestic Product . . . This book offers a lively and compelling account of the ways maternal altruism subsidizes our entire economy but imposes high costs on mothers themselves. Ann Crittenden deftly combines facts, figures, interviews, and personal stories to document the unfair -- and inefficient -- distribution of the costs of rearing children. She has written a great and important book.
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