Here are three potential questions to prompt further discussion: 1. How have societal expectations and workplace policies evolved (or not evolved) since Crittenden's writing to better support working mothers? 2. What more can/should be done by employers, policymakers, and society to truly enable both women's career advancement and fulfilling family lives? 3. For those who want both a career and family, what compromises or alternative paths have you considered to balance these priorities in today's environment?

1. “HAVING IT ALL” –
AT WHAT PRICE?
THE PRICE OF MOTHERHOOD BY ANNCRITTENDEN
CHAPTERS 1 & 2
BY CHRISTINA CRISOSTOMO

2. ANN CRITTENDEN
New York Times
reporter, Pulitzer Prize
nominee, Newsweek
correspondent,Fortune
reporter, visiting lecturer
at MIT and Yale, CBS
News
commentator, author…
…and mother!

3. 1: WHERE WE ARE NOW
The myth of mothers “flying the coop”…

4. 1: WHERE WE ARE NOW
Of all married mothers with children under
18...
 Approx. 28% are not in the labor force
 Approx. 20% are at least partially employed
 Approx 50% work full-time (min. 35 hrs/week)

5. 1: WHERE WE ARE NOW
“A full-time „wife‟ is often the only thing
that makes family life possible.” (17)
 Myth of fathers becoming equal parents
 80% of CFOS were men with nonworking
spouses
 64% of male executives with children under 13
had nonworking spouses

6. 1: WHERE WE ARE NOW
So…where are we now?
 “It is still women who adjust their lives to
accommodate the needs of children…who
forgo status, income, advancement and
independence. Nowhere is this more
dramatically illustrated than in the
experience of the nation‟s most educated
women – the ones who had the best shot at
having it all.” (27)

7. 2: A CONSPIRACY OF
SILENCE
“The unwritten requirement for success in
corporate America is to be a corporate
man” (29)

8. 2: A CONSPIRACY OF
SILENCE
Those who point out the challenges of
“having it all” come under fire…

9. 2: A CONSPIRACY OF
SILENCE
These women wanted to
“persuade the „male
structures and
conventions of business‟
to accommodate
women‟s preferences.
But no one else was
ready to admit that
women were different
at all.” (32)

10. 2: A CONSPIRACY OF
SILENCE
A history of “having it all”
 1910 grads: career or family
 1930s grads: job then family
 1950s grads: family then job
 1970s grads: the first generation to try “having it
all”
 But most followed the “job then family” path, later on in
life

11. 2: A CONSPIRACY OF
SILENCE
 Goldin study of female 1970s Harvard MBA
grads
 Less than 20% reached mid-life with a career
and family – and half were childless
 Walker and Swiss study
 Majorityof mothers felt reducing hours would be
detrimental to their careers, but 70% cut back
anyways
 Complex mix of feelings over what was viewed as
an unnecessary conflict between child care and
professional goals

12. 2: A CONSPIRACY OF
SILENCE
“Things would have been easier…if they
„had only one child,‟ or „had no kids,‟ or had
been „born a man.‟” (35)
Mothers face…
Limited opportunities for advancement
Discrimination Judgment Unsupportive
policies
Lack of representation in leadership
across a variety of fields.

13. IN THE NEWS…
Articles from September 11th& 12th, 2012

14. THE FACTS
 First day of class – “Sex, Gender, and Culture”
 Prof. Adrienne Pine‟s baby Lee woke up with a
fever
 Pine couldn‟t take the baby to daycare sick
 Pine: “Cancelling did not seem like an option.”
 Brought Lee with her and lectured with Lee
either crawling on the floor or strapped to her back
 When Lee got restless, Pine informed the class
she would quickly breast-feed Lee and did
so, without stopping the lecture
 Pine is a single mother

15. STUDENT REACTIONS
 “She did what she had to do. She‟s a
mother, and she needed to take care of her
child.”
 “I feel like it was really unprofessional of
her...she should have at least stepped out of the
room.”
 “I think what‟s inappropriate is that she brought
her child to class in the first place…it‟s very
distracting.”

16. AU REACTION
 AU stated that it follows a law that requires it to
give new mothers frequent breaks and
private places to pump breast milk for their
children
 “AU does have a policy that provides leave
when a child is sick…AU‟s Accrued Sick and
Safe Leave Policy provides the opportunity to
take paid leave to care for the sick child and
protect the health of the community.” – AU

17. BACK TO CRITTENDEN
 Trend of mothers working full-time
 Pressure felt especially by single mothers
 A highly-educated career woman attempting
to “have it all”
 Evenwith daycare, seemingly supportive
University policies, she still struggles

18. BACK TO CRITTENDEN
 Professionalism defined on men‟s
terms, necessity for women to balance
work/family
 Pine felt compelled to teach the first lecture
despite her child‟s illness
 Simply bringing a child to work – let alone
breastfeeding publically – would be
unprofessional/unsupported in many work
environments
 Value of a mother‟s work (i.e. breastfeeding)
 Influence on negative student reactions

19. QUESTIONS (1/3)
 What is your reaction to Pine‟s situation, in
light of reading Crittenden? Do you think it
would have been different prior to reading
Crittenden?

20. QUESTIONS (2/3)
 We should know best – what are our
generation‟s feelings about “having it all”?
Consider:
 Increasing workweeks (De Graaf and Batker)
 The “necessity” of a “full-time wife”/The myth of
equal parenting
 Studies of Harvard grads
 Challenges mothers face in the workplace
 Is it attainable? Is it still taboo to talk about
not being able to have it all?