Salary for Mom

An interesting article on CNN about the would-be salary of stay-at-home mom's was very interesting. The concept behind the article and the study it's based on, monetizing and placing value on the work women do in their own homes, is not foreign to me. In courses that focus on women and gender (one of my advisers specializes in this area) the meaning and impact of moving women from the workplace is not uncommon. Joanna Bourke's Husbandry to Housewifery: Women, Economic Change, and Housework in Ireland, 1890-1914 directly focuses on this topic in an Irish context, yet Bourke's findings can be applied to other places as well. All of this begs the question of what do we make of these findings? If you ask the average parent, it's unlikely they would be surprised by the study. But what, if any thing, can be done to actually compensate parents for their time spent tending to their families? At the crux of my thinking about this issue is class. Bourke's work looks at what would be best classified as middle class (which for 19th Century Irish society was much different from what we think of as middle class today). I can't help but think that if there were some sort of renumeration for stay-at-home parents that as a society, we would see an improvement in America. I recently watched the Michael Moore film, "Sicko" and while I am by no means a supporter of Mr. Moore and the way he presents his views, some of the facts he presents are indisputable. While presenting information about France's health care system, Moore reveals that the government pays individuals to help out mothers with infants at home. It seems to me, perhaps indirectly, that the French government emphasizes the value of parenting. By having individuals help new mothers, the new mothers are able to be even more productive, and the domestic service industry, under the control of the government becomes more standardized and regulated. Of course, these are ideals, but still interesting concepts to think about. Nothing like this would ever fly in America because of our vast fear of "socialism," but it certainly seems like a step in the right direction to me in acknowledging the importance and value of stay-at-home parents.