The Price of Motherhood: Summary and book reviews of The Price of Motherhood by Ann Crittenden, plus links to an excerpt from The Price of Motherhood and a biography of Ann Crittenden.
The Price of Motherhood Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued
by Ann Crittenden
Hardcover: Feb 2001,
323 pages.
Paperback: Jan 2002,
336 pages.
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.
New York Times Book Review
Written with a fine passion and at times a biting wit, it challenges the received ideas of economists, feminists and conservatives alike . . . As informative and engaging in its details as it is compelling in its overall argument.
Publishers Weekly
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.
Library Journal
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.
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.
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.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Tanzeel
Her simple but poignant writing drives home the fact that MOTHERS have yet to achieve a lot of things, too many!
A great recommendation for MEN worldwide, as a male college student this book was really an eye opener for me and made me... Read More
Rated of 5
by Erin
A spectacular account of the real experiences of many mothers. As a student of sociology, I have read countless manuscripts and novels, but none has been so fulfilling a read as Ann Crittenden's The Price of Motherhood. A fulfilling read - well... Read More
Rated of 5
by Dana
An excellent book. Crittenden outlines the problems as she understands them clearly and convincingly and then offers viable solutions. This is an important book for employers, policy-makers, parents, and those considering parenting to read. It... Read More
In a novel that is at once uproariously funny and achingly sad, Allison Pearson captures the guilty secret lives of working women--the self-recrimination, the comic deceptions, the giddy exhaustion, the despair--as no other writer has.
This is one of 3 readalike suggestions for The Price of Motherhood. Members have full access to all readalikes. If you are a member, please login. To find out more about membership, click here.
A bold, mesmerizing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the burgeoning metropolis of early twentieth century New York.
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight...
read more
Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
read more
Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
read more
British Parliament asks Amazon to clarify why it pays $9 million in income tax on $23 billion of UK sales.(May 20 2013) Amazon will be called back to give further evidence to members of the British Parliament "to clarify how its activities in the U.K. justify its low corporate...
Full Story
New York Times Book Review
Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Fear of Falling The Inner Life of the Middle Class
of 5
by Tanzeel
Write your own review!
