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.
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. 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. 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 book offers a lively and compelling account of the ways maternal altruism subsidizes our entire economy but imposes high costs on mothers themselves.