Former New York Times writer discusses full-time motherhood

Ann Crittenden, a former Pulitzer-Prize nominee who left The New York Times to raise her son, was stunned by the generally negative response to her decision to become a full-time mom.

On one occasion, she said, someone at a Washington cocktail party said, "Hey, didn't you used to be Ann Crittenden?"

"I was tremendously unprepared for the fall in status," Crittenden said yesterday to a near-capacity crowd of mostly women in Dodds Auditorium.

"Bragging about your skills as a parent is like bragging about your skills at group sex."

Cosponsored by the Wilson School and the Gender and Development Policy Network, the lecture was held in honor of International Women's Day, which is Saturday.

Crittenden's dismay at the low status accorded to primary caregivers moved her to research and write "The Price of Motherhood," her third book.

Unacknowledged role

In her talk, Crittenden spoke passionately about the "unacknowledged, unrecognized, virtually invisible role of women [in motherhood] . . . which is the most important job in the economy."

Crittenden, a former economics reporter, explained that human capital, which makes up 59 percent of the wealth in developed countries, is the single most important factor in the economy.

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Though economists agree with this, Crittenden said they overlook the degree to which development takes place in early childhood.

"Life does not begin with Head Start," she said. "Human capabilities do not begin with formal education. They begin at birth."

As a result, Crittenden said, the nation has economic interests in according a higher status to motherhood.

"A smart society that wants to maximize its wealth will want to make sure women, and in particular mothers, have resources," she added.

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Crittenden discussed the career sacrifices that women must make to have children, citing statistics that while the wage difference between men and childless women is nearly nonexistent, wages of women with children lag behind by 20 percent.

Termed the "mommy tax," the opportunity cost of having a child can be as high as $1 million for a woman with a college degree, Crittenden said.

Crittenden, who also wrote for Newsweek and Fortune, said that motherhood is a clear example of a "free-rider problem," whereby one who can benefit from something produced by others does not contribute to its provision.

She argued that since society stands to benefit from children raised in nurturing homes, it should thus contribute more to the cost of providing such environments.

"This is the big, unfinished business of the women's movement," Crittenden said, "as well as the big intellectual gap in understanding of the way the world works, and of what creates wealth."