Personally, I don’t see a difference between a woman who would assign a dollar value to her effort as a parent and a woman who would assign a dollar value to sex. Moral of my point: it is tacky to attach a dollar value to a personal relationship.

Additionally - a “stay at home mommy” doesn’t have a boss. That must be nice.

I think most people are quietly trying to forget that those aberrations even exist. Same as with single fathers.

There was a similar study to this done in the UK which reached a much lower figure, one that might be more in line with reality.

One reason it might be worth adding this up - it’s good to know how much prosperity is lost to society because mothers are pushed out of the workplace. *le sigh*

And there is one situation where we pay women to be stay at home moms.

This stuff just annoys me, for all the very good reasons you enumerated, Lisa. I don’t have anything substantive to add, though. The faulty logic, math, and rhetoric of those who claim that SAHM motherhood just drives me nuts.

I understand that middle-class educated SAHMs (the opt-out class, if you will) may feel that they have to justify their choices, especially if, like me, they were taught that it’s their Duty to Feminism to Make Their Marks in the workplace.

I understand that there is something to be gained by examining the possible monetary value of unpaid labour traditionally performed by women (where “traditionally” means “traditionally in middle-class homes not wealthy enough to outsource these jobs to nannies, maids, housekeepers and other underpaid domestic labourers, but wealthy enough that the household could afford for one potential earner to stay home and perform all those tasks.”). It’s important to acknowledge that these women are contributing to their households and families, and it does them no credit to assume that everything they do is easy. It’s important to acknowledge that when one partner stays home, the other partner may be benefiting from domestic labour that would otherwise be expensive.

But yeah, stay-at-home dads do a lot of the same work, and nobody’s canonizing them as a class. Working moms pull the second shift at home, as do some working dads.

Also? I really want to know how running one household with one or possible two locations, and probably fewer than seven participants (not counting pets) could possibly hold challenges or require skills similar to those of a CEO. Like Lisa said, small business-owner, sure. Office manager for large company, sure. Group manager or team lead, not too far off. I really wouldn’t want to meet someone who parented the way most CEOs I’ve met run their companies.

I’d also be curious as to how long the “second shift” is for other groups, such as women without children in the household or working/stay-at-home fathers.