“How did we ever come to believe that it was more important for somebody to have a meaningless job than to raise their children well? This doesn’t make sense even in simple accounting terms.”
– Robert Theobald, in Reworking Success
Women and their labors have always been an afterthought, discarded efforts like the daily trash. No matter the sacrifice and the amount of struggle, it was just what women were supposed to do. So why has no one placed value in the valiant efforts that millions of women produce on a daily basis? To be honest, women’s work doesn’t produce any benefit to the GNP (Gross National Product) of any nation. GNP measures ‘tangible’ income, such as profits derived by companies and units produced by industry. GNP does not measure ‘intangibles’ such as new innovations, care provided to the elderly by a family member, or the 18+ year job of raising a responsible human being from birth to adulthood. The GNP process and its creator, Sir Richard Stone, was awarded the Nobel Prize for initiating the first ever measuring stick for establishing a rating system for nations to measure their volume of monetary transactions. The only problem is that there are many efforts that produce value for a nation that foregoes monetary reimbursement.
Ann Crittenden, in her work The Truly Invisible Hand writes, “Women have always had a hard time being “counted.” The verb “to count” has several meanings: “to matter, “ “to make a difference, “ “to enumerate.” Women have long been regarded as deficient in all of these ways, including the idea that they are not very good at math. But in the days when men were still the undisputed heads of the household, there was great respect for the activity that takes place in the home – and recognition that it did, in fact, generate wealth. The very word “economics” derives from the Greek rook oikonomia, the management of the household. Aristotle had the highest regard for oikonomia and made an important distinction between it and chrematistics. Oikonomia referred to the management of a household so as to increase its use value to all of its members over the long run. Chrematistics was the manipulation of the property and wealth so as to maximize short-term exchange values.” [1]
So, I must admit that first of all, I take offense to the statement that women are not good at math. Many women handle the financial end of unions, whether tied by marriage or not. Furthermore, my oldest daughter made a perfect score on the math section of the SAT, so that blows that theory completely out of the water for me! Not to mention that I made an A in Calculus & Physics! But, then as we all know, women are verbal, not logical (yea, right)!
Karen L. Hooks and Shirley J. Cheramy in the Journal of Accountancy state, "Firms with 20 or fewer AICPA members hired a greater proportion of females. These results are consistent with the annual AICPA (American Institute of CPAs) Supply of Accounting Graduates and Demand for Accounting Recruits studies, which found that since the mid-1980s, more than half of the accounting graduates--and since the late 1980s, about half of public accounting entry-level hires--have been women. These results support the perception that gender parity seems solid at the entry level." (Hooks) [2]
At the heart of the matter is the fact that work performed by women and mothers is considered ‘free.’ It has no monetary value and does not contribute to the GNP of their native country. Quite frankly, nothing counts in the GNP unless it is bought for a price and sold for a price! So that bodes the question, do mother’s efforts really contribute to society, in that their work should be counted in the GNP?
Crittenden debates that “Conscientious mothers, motivated by feelings of compassion and love, nurture, protect and train children for adulthood. Fathers, other female caregivers, and relatives may play a part in this process, but mothers have the primary role. Their altruism, and willingness to do all that they can for their offspring, left unfettered, will be guided as if by an invisible hand to produce healthy children who will become the productive, enterprising economic men and women of the future. Conscientious mothers, in other words, are the contemporary practitioners of oikonomia: the building and preservation of long-term communal value that used to be the essence of economics.”[3]
It is important to note that the quality of the first years of the life of child has shown to directly impact the future human intellectual and emotional capabilities of the child. Research in Child Development has pinpointed that “the care and guidance of the young child lays the essential groundwork for the formation of human knowledge, skills, creativity and entrepreneurship.” [4] Ergo, human capabilities that produce human capital… i.e., the people that make money, are dependent upon the mother figure. Crittenden states that “human capital – or human capabilities – is an even more important component of a nation’s riches than natural capital (land, minerals, water) or physical capital (bricks and mortar, machines, roads). “[5]
I conclude with this thought. Crittenden states that “The prevailing assumption is that the formation of productive skills begins with the formal education, when a child goes off to school. Somehow, in the abstract world of economics, curious babies spontaneously evolve into eager students, ready to read and write.”[6]
To support Crittenden’s stance, I firmly believe that “I” created the people that my children are today! If you think that my girls emerged from my uterus being gifted or uniquely talented, you are wrong! The positive environment encouraging curiosity that they experienced from birth to age 5 created the individuals who developed a thirst for knowledge at such a young age… to know how to count, to repeat the alphabet, and even read, by the time their seat was assigned in kindergarten! It was the years that I struggled to pay for them to attend to NASA Space Camp, to take ballet, explore music, and to enroll in algebra classes in the summer rather than hanging out at the pool. Those were the experiences that created the women who are well respected doctors today, aiding patients as their hearts fail and enabling the gift of hearing to those who have lost that sense.
I so vividly remember the parent-teacher conference when my older daughter was in the 2nd grade. I was cognizant that this teacher was having no impact on the future development of my child as she looked straight at me and said,”Mrs. Humphrey, I am paid by the State of North Carolina to teach the Second Grade. If your child performs at a sixth grade level that is not my problem.” I firmly believe that I created, within the first five years of her life, the child who excels, who surpasses the ordinary, who reaches for the stars. But my tax dollars only pay for the ordinary, the mediocre.
It was not the secondary education, or the universities who produced my daughters’ intelligence, talent & determination… it was my efforts during their first years of life; creating an environment of discovery, of awakening, of curiosity, that produced the fine women who on a daily basis serve the needs of others. I must admit that I did not take credit for their success until I was well into my forties, when I suddenly looked at my life and said… hey, I did this, me and me alone! I created these masterpieces! So, why I am I not as revered as Michelangelo or Botticelli?
Now, I ask you… should a mother’s efforts be counted in the GNP of a nation? Why shouldn’t our work be valued – counted in the production of our nation? Surely, I did my job to increase the GNP… why are my years of dedication to the next generation not worth anything on the bottom line?
Please comment if you think your efforts should be valuable enough to be counted in the economic value of the nation.
Works Cited
Crittenden, Ann. The Price of Motherhood. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, 2001.
Hooks, Karen L. Hooks and Cheramy, Shirley J. "Facts and Myths about Women CPAs." Journal of Accountancy 178 (1998).
Great eamples of how to create an enviornment for children to achieve to their highest potential. The proglem with this theory of impacting the GNP is in the very nature of its calculation (unfortunately)...because the results or your efforts are already being captured in your daughter's own performance results. In terms of potential value of a gifted child this is still unknown in terms of actual fulfillment; therefore, I would instead advocate for employers to award a "signing bonus" to Mothers as an adjunct to attact the specially talented candidates they have identified for job offers. Far fetched, sure, but it surely would create an environment where mothers were recognized for their contributions and to establish an expectation for their roles to continue in support of the development of stellar talent.....Childhold Development as important as Board Room Performance
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