May 18, 2006

A Mother's Woman's Worth

I was thrilled to learn that according to a U.S. study done by compensation analysts, women are worth more now. The new figure was derived by considering the following roles that women play in caring for their families:

  • day care worker
  • chef
  • housekeeper
  • airport shuttle/driver
  • other support staff (use your imagination!)
The list for Purple WomenTM might include personal shopper instead of day care worker, but I think this looks about right, except for the headline. Bottom line: $US134,121. I plan to shoot an email to the editor, so check the next issue. Here's the email if you wish to do the same: letters@macleans.ca.

MacLean's May 15, 2006 issue, page 15.

Yahoo News picked up the full Rueter's wire story here: Mother's Worth


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4 comments:

Shannon Morgan said...

Interesting that "Accountant" wasn't on the list of roles. My mother always handled the money, and so do I. Control freaks? Possibly... But definitely adds to the value. That study definitely had a limited view of stay-at-home moms.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Yes, the study produced by Salary.com did focus on mothers, so that explaines how MacLean's got their headline.

The study authors, however, are on on my mea culpa list for their omission of women who are not mothers, who, as other studies have shown still do the bulk of house chores! It's the gender thing all over again.

When it comes to making relationships and families (of two or more) work, it really doesn't pay to keep track. I guess it makes good headlines.

I agree with the woman quoted as saying:

"You can't put a dollar value on it. It's worth a lot more..."

-- Yahoo News (added a link to the original post).

Britgirl said...

I also think the study was rather limited, first in only considering mothers for the study (does that mean that non-mothers don't have a monetary worth then? Or that it doesn't count?) second for the limited list of roles and third for underestimating the $$ amount.