Book Review of the Price of Motherhood by Ann Crittendon

This book shows that even though mothers receive tons of verbal praise and get one day a year dedicated to them they are undervalued and under appreciated, and not just by those who live with them and are related to them. The nation and society views mothers and the work they do as worthless. Ann explores what women give up to be a mother and what society does to mothers. After Ann left her well paying job to stay home with her baby someone actually said to her - didn't you used to be Ann Crittenden ?, suggesting that because she no longer was in the work force, that since she was just a mom, she was nobody.

Ann Crittendon explores how important mothers are but everyday, even now in the 21st century, we are under appreciated, under valued and even considered to be worthless economically and useless in the eyes of society. "The job of making a home for a child and developing his or her capabilities is often equated with ‘doing nothing'…raising children may be the most important job in the world but you can't put it on a resume." The domestic unpaid work mothers do is not considered work because we are not paid for it therefore we are not included in the Gross National Product (GNP) so economically we are worthless and overlooked.

"Swedish women…enjoy benefits that American women can only imagine in their wildest dreams: a year's paid leave after childbirth, the right to work a six hour day with full benefits until the child is in primary school, and a stipend from the government to help pay child-care expenses." (pg 108) Yet here in the United States we get nothing, the government is too busy worrying about war and spending billions on weapons instead of education and supporting the mothers and children that contribute to the strength and future of the nation. Most European countries take care of their women and children. Poverty among American white children alone is much higher than the levels in Western Europe and it is left unsaid that the levels of poverty among non white children in the US are extremely high.