Mommy Wage Gap

     I was reading the Valenti chapter entitled "Material World" when I stumbled upon something that I had never heard of before. It is common knowledge that women make significantly less in the workforce than men. However, I was not aware that mothers in the workforce make significantly less than non-mothers. "For the first kid a woman has, the wage difference between her salary and a mommy's is 2 to 10 percent. For the second kid, the gap grows to 4 to 16 percent." I guess what was the most shocking to me is the fact that we ignore problems such as this. Why has it been so easy for conservatives to hide these statistics and make sure that this truth isn't heard? Thinking about this in a logical manner adds further confusion as to the rationale behind paying mothers less. It's no secret; children cost money. Actually children cost a lot of money. This is why I cannot wrap my head around why we would pay women less, when they have more people to provide for. Is this because deep down our society still has a problem with women being the breadwinner.
    And if you do have your hands full with kids and can't seem to make ends meet, you should find a man who can support you. This I believe can be attributed to the Christian faith and it's hold on society. We are discouraging instead of helping single mothers. We tell them that it's killing a life to have an abortion but then give them little help when it comes to taking care of that life outside the womb. This strategy also forgets to take into account the fact that many women do not choose to be single mothers. We praise women who rely on their husbands for support because that is the "right" way to do things. But when a woman loses the support of a father's child we demonize them and put many systematic obstacles in their way as if the blame for their struggle is wholly their own.