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CNN Live Saturday

What's the Dollar Value of Motherhood?

Aired May 12, 2001 - 16:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Some say it's the hardest job a woman can ever have. And now, one author is assigning a dollar value to the price of motherhood. CNN's Kathy Slobogin has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We bring them flowers, send them cards and sing their praises. Mothers, the largest unpaid workforce in the country.

ANN CRITTENDEN, AUTHOR: At the end of the day, motherhood is the single biggest risk factor for poverty in America.

SLOBOGIN: Ann Crittenden, author of "The Price of Motherhood," says we give mothers lip service, but very little else.

CRITTENDEN: One good example I discovered myself about two years ago. I got an estimate from the Social Security what I could expect when I retire, and I looked at the statement and it's full of zeros, and I thought, what is this? Every zero represented a year I was working for the family instead of my own career.

SLOBOGIN: Crittenden was a Pulitzer Prize nominee and a reporter for "Fortune," "Newsweek" and the "New York Times" before she had her son 17 years ago.

CRITTENDEN: It was the hardest job I'd ever had, after years of being a reporter and a writer.

SLOBOGIN: She decided to leave her job and stay home, but she wasn't prepared for what happened.

CRITTENDEN: I was invisible. My favorite story: I'm at a party, and a guy comes across the room to me and he says: "Hey, didn't you used to be Ann Crittenden"? At that point, I knew I had to find a way to write about this.

SLOBOGIN: Her son, James Henry, is now a senior in high school. Crittenden has spent the last five years documenting the gap between sentiment and reality when it comes to the value she says Americans place on motherhood.

Baby-sitters get Social Security credit for their work, says Crittenden, but not mothers. When you take into account lost earnings and savings from staying home, it adds up to what she calls a "mommy tax."

CRITTENDEN: It's now been estimated that if you have one child and you're a college graduate, your lifetime earnings will be about $1 million lower than a woman who does not have a child. That is what I call a mommy tax.

SLOBOGIN (on camera): You know the argument: women choose to have children, and if they're making sacrifices, it's their choice.

CRITTENDEN: We truly do have a set of institutions that keep resources out of the hands of mothers.

SLOBOGIN (voice-over): This week, she urged members of Congress and their staff to fight for things like paid parental leave and Social Security credit for mothers.

(on camera): How likely is it that any of this will happen?

(AUDIO AND VIDEO GAP)

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