Building Alternative Status
Ladders for Women

By Diana Wells

An eye-catching blurb on page 13 of the April 1, 2001 New York Times Book Review reads: "Welcome to [North] America, the land where having a child is the worst economic decision a woman can make." That is, unless she is a farmer. The book under review is Ann Crittenden's book entitled, "The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued," and the reviewer, Business Week's Catherina Arnst.

Crittenden's economic argument makes sense only within a social and cultural environment where value or status is defined in economic terms. Simply put, when women in North America bear children their value in the employment market goes down, perhaps irrevocably, because the United States' employment market privileges full-time over part-time work and penalizes those seeking to return to the workforce after periods of unemployment. Many use this fact to justify why, in North America, women earn 76 cents for every dollar that men make. The discrepancy in earning power illustrates that in North America, women's status is determined not only by their status as mothers but also by the potentiality of their child-bearing capacity.

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Go to the Changemakers Library for selected Internet resources about childbearing and the status of women

Overcoming the Stigma of Infertility in Zimbabwe

Feeling shattered when her infertile husband threw her out, Betty Chishava reached out to other childless women
By Penny Cohen

Societal norms have penetrated the psyche of the childless woman so much that she suffers immense frustration and agony