In my Introduction to Anthropology textbook, “Culture asGiven, Culture as Choice” by van der Elst, there was a comment that got me thinking, All that is needed for women to fall into poverty is just to have one more child than they can afford. This comment impacted me and got me thinking and it made a lot of sense. One child represents not only the additional cost to support that new human being, but also the opportunity costs of not pursuing other economic activities because of caring for the newcomer.

The comment from the Anthropology textbook got me interested in the issue and I started reading “The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued” by Ann Crittenden.  After reading Ann Crittenden’s book I was totally persuaded, that in our society the price of motherhood is incredibly high. One thing I learned from the book is that the biggest gap in income isn’t between men and women but between mothers and non-mothers. This fact validates the comment that women are only one child away from poverty.  Among the reasons for this is that women generally are not afforded paid leave to take care of the new child, the lack of medical care insurance, or inadequate medical care insurance, and the lack of support services to allow women to join the workforce or go back to school after having a child. Our society doesn’t offer affordable child-care either. Most employers do not provide a flexible schedule of hours or telecommuting, either of which in general make it easier for women with children to try to coordinate both, work and child-care.

I also think that this is where the issue of birth control is so important. Birth control allows women to decide if and when to have children. While everyone in society should be able to get ahead whether they have one child or three children, the truth is that having no children or very few makes a difference in the income available to the family and in the number of educational and occupational opportunities available to women.  Having a child without any planning can easily derail a career.

My Anthropology professor, Paula Wagoner, asked the women in the class “How many kids do you want?”, and then she asked an even better question, “If your future husband left you, could you afford the child on your own?” Which brings up another point I hadn’t thought about before. How women who are left with children after a divorce plunge into poverty. So many women don’t get child-support payments or else the payments they get are too small.Reading the Anthropology textbook made me think how many kids do I want, when do I want them and also that when I have them, can I support them without the help of a husband. Someone said that too often the face of poverty, is a woman.

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