Supporting Every Woman's Work-Choice

Thanks to all who have answered the questionnaire, below, and to all who have promised to in the near future. If you get a chance, please read the responses that have come in. This is not a scientific survey, to say the least, but it offers a fascinating portrait of the diversity of voices, and the individuality of each woman who responded. Which brings me to the next step. What to do with such diversity of opinion and thought? Is there common ground?
My goal is to support every woman's work-choice. Personally, I wanted to stay home with my young children, though I would have appreciated and accessed more formal support (say, a playgroup at my local primary school, had one existed). What about parents who want to stay home, but can't afford to? What about parents who want to return to work, but can't find adequate daycare?
Domestic work and caring for children does not carry great social currency. It is often unpaid, or underpaid. My initial notion was to ask society ("hello, society!") to recognize our at-home work as productive and valuable. And while I do believe there are small and individual actions we can take in support of this, like proudly claiming our work, rather than feeling vaguely ashamed about doing it, I rather suspect that society might politely ignore the whole initiative.
Here's my question for you: In order to assign value to this work, does it need a price tag? Should we calculate the value of that work--and the value of these children to the future economy? And further, should that work, then, be compensated?
My husband, Kevin, has helpfully crunched a few numbers for our cause using statistics from StatsCan and Canada Revenue Agency. The average wage in Canada in 2007 was $29,800. Taxed at 21% (or $6258), with additional taxes removed for CPP, and EI, and GST and PST, an average employee and his or her employer pay the government roughly $16,909 annually. Over a lifetime of work, using these numbers, the government can expect $794,737 from this person.
Over 18 years from infancy to adulthood, therefore, to produce a tax-generating product of such marvelous quality and value, the caregivers have invested $44,152 annually in labour and development alone.
Ok. The most obvious problem with this calculation is that children aren't products. And people are priceless. But if a number is needed, it's one way to calculate it. Since I've got four products currently in development, that works out to an annual salary of $176,608. That would pop me up a tax bracket or two. However, part of the calculation would be subtracting for work contracted out (teachers, babysitters, preschool, etc.). So if the government would like to invest more in daycares and after-school programs, I will happily pay for its initiatives out of my childcare salary. Hmm ... this fantasy is making me happy.
What do you think?
Please use the comment feature below to reply (or contact me directly).