Crittenden, Ann

Crittenden's Mother Career

With the birth of her son in 1982, Crittenden's career slowed drastically. She had to choose between 10hour days at the New York Times and time at home with her son. Crittenden chose her son, and left her position at the New York Times. One evening at a party in New York, someone stopped her and asked if she used to be Ann Crittenden. At this point, Crittenden realized she needed to write about mothers and the workplace.

In The Price of Motherhood, Crittenden combines her research and writing skills with her personal experience. Her book brings to the forefront the issues of discrimination based on family responsibility. Crittenden exposes the discrepancies in work and economics for mothers and highlights the economic risks of motherhood. She proposes a dollar value for maternal work and introduces the idea of the “mommy tax,” which is the amount of lifetime income lost by women after they have children. For college-educated women, this amount can be over $1 million, and for other women, it can range between $600,000 and $700,000.

Crittenden began writing The Price of Motherhood in the mid-1990s, when motherhood was not part of progressive feminism. Since the book's inception and publication, issues surrounding motherhood have become part of the feminist agenda as well as a focus of public policy. States now have paid family leave and insurance, whereas none did [Page 255]when Crittenden wrote the book. Another change came with the new attitude that motherhood should be considered serious work, a respected profession, and not something that keeps women from other things in life. Crittenden considers The Price of Motherhood her most satisfying work, because it resonates with so many women.

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