How To Bring Children Up Without Putting Women Down: Price of Motherhood Conclusion

After reading a book that has done a superb job at pointing out all of the country's problems, it's a relief that Ann Crittenden offers some possible solutions. Breastfeeding rates are down as the time limit for maternity gets cut shorter and shorter, along with the fact that maternity leave is unpaid leave is forcing infants as young as six weeks old into group settings, many for as long a ten hours a day. “No other women or children in the industrialized world are forced to live under these conditions, which child development experts agree are deplorable, if not downright harmful, (p. 259).

Those concerned with family values or parental neglect of children could find no better place to attack the problem than by demanding a paid leave, which could be shared by both parents, of at least one year, (p. 259). That way the recommendation sent by the American pediatrics official recommendations of new mothers breastfeeding their infant for at least one year could actually be feasible, and family bonds could grow stronger as the dad's from bonds with their new baby. Studies have shown that the more involved a father is with his new son/daughter early in life, the less likely he will be to leave that child later in life.


A second solution would be a shorter work week. This has been met with much opposition, as the bottom line is top priority. However, overwork-related stress disorders, absenteeism, and turnover would surely be reduced, and productivity in some cases improved, as a number of French companies have already discovered (p. 260).

Thirdly, a “worker” should be defined as anyone who is either employed in the provisions of goods and services or is engaged in the unpaid provisions of care and services to dependent adults and children (p. 263). Also, a mother's taxes could also be reduced considerably by allowing her to deduct child-care expenditures. If business executives can deduct half the cost of meals and entertainment as a legitimate cost of doing business, then surely the primary caregiver should be allowed to deduct the cost of substitute child care as a business expense, which certainly is (p. 266).


If a handful of these proposals were enacted, the most obvious result would be a massive shift of income to women. However, studies have shown that in today's economy women are the dominate indicator in how well the economy does, their spending power holds all the power. If this is the case, why are we met with such resistance? Female caregivers have been the the world's cheap labor for too long. They have been forced to be dependents for too long. “A society that beggars its mothers beggars its own future,” (p. 274). That is something to think and fight about.