Those who argue that the battle of feminism has been won should
read THE PRICE OF MOTHERHOOD by Ann Crittenden, a former New
York Times reporter and a Pulitzer Prize nominee. Crittenden's
thorough research on the status of mothers in American society
gives strong factual support to the frustration felt by women all
over America, including mothers who have given up careers and
financial security in order to care for their children, mothers who
remain in the work force in order to make ends meet and agonize
over the effect this has on their children, and also those women
who choose not to have children because our society has made
motherhood so difficult.

Crittenden paints a grim portrait of the place of women in America
today. Women make an average of around 75 cents for every dollar
earned by men (59 cents when part-time work is included). Divorced
and separated women have a 30% chance of needing government
assistance. Women who stay at home to care for their children earn
zero Social Security dollars during that time and thus jeopardize
their subsistence during retirement. Crittenden assembles many
statistics like these that show why it's no surprise that the rate
of poverty among women and children is much higher than among men.
She explains how precarious women's financial security becomes when
they choose to stay at home to raise their children, sacrificing
hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost wages and making
themselves vulnerable to very serious financial trouble in the case
of divorce. Crittenden asks why in such a prosperous society we
require women to pay such an absurdly high price for having
children, especially when the future stability and economic health
of our country depends on children being born and nurtured.

Crittenden demonstrates that it is possible for society to do more
to make parenting easier. She shows how other countries have done
it, such as France, which provides cash payments and free health
care for all mothers; and Sweden, where mothers can take a year's
maternity leave with 75% pay, and parents of children under eight
are allowed to work a shortened work week. She offers proposals for
making it easier to balance work and child-rearing, changing the
way family income is distributed and taxed to make it more
equitable, and creating new family support networks in our
communities. While some of her suggestions are radical and very
unlikely, most of them seem to be simple common sense.

Although THE PRICE OF MOTHERHOOD is based on sober facts, it is
highly readable. Crittenden weaves in stories about real women and
their families to give life to her statistics and bring her points
home, and her subject is such a fundamental part of life that it
touches every reader. The book's only weakness is its
one-sidedness. Crittenden never once sheds light on the opposing
perspective, so that even a sympathetic reader wonders what
important parts of the big picture have been left out of the
book.

Nonetheless, Crittenden makes her points so strongly that anyone
who reads this book will be moved to feel concern for the issues
she talks about. THE PRICE OF MOTHERHOOD provides inspiration and
ammunition for today's women to demand that society give them the
respect and support that they deserve.