User:EpsomSavant/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Motherhood Penalty

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because one of my coworkers just began her maternity leave. She will be absent for several months and is a key player in our organization. We're all excited for her and pulled money for her to stash in a savings account for her son's future college fund. She and her husband have worked overtime to save up as much as they can due to her absence from work and the rising cost of living. We want to help her as much as we can because we are aware of the challenges first-time parents face. She should not have to worry about her paycheck, how she's going to afford baby supplies, or pay her bills on time.

This article is important because it highlights challenges mothers face depending on their age, marital status, and various forms of discrimination. It also shares multiple policies and laws that have been created to protect mothers (and fathers, if married) from these discriminatory actions. This collection of information provides a well-rounded article that presents an issue mothers face and improvements that have been made to help them over time. The article does not dive deep into specific examples based on one country or state; rather, it presents a general summary of the "Motherhood Penalty" women face around the world.

Evaluate the article
The lead section provides a paragraph that explains what is the "mother penalty," and presents multiple factors that have a role in causing and improving upon the penalty. The mentioned factors are then discussed in greater detail throughout the article with a total of 30 citations to back up the discussion. The citations are from reliable sources such as universities, government websites, academic journals, and books written by researches who specialize in the field or topic at hand. There was only one section that had a citation stating, "better source needed."

The paper is well-organized, flows well, and has room for further development. Images featuring statistical data could be added from their sources. Those visuals might make it easier to understand the material being discussed, and it would make the article appear to be a less daunting, dry read. At a first glance, the article reads like an essay and can easily answer a person's curiosity on the unspoken challenge of motherhood. Due to these overall factors, I believe that's why this article has been rated "start-class." The article is an educational assignment.

Students in the Talk section helped improve upon the article. For example, a classmate asked for clarifying information regarding whether the author was talking about women in the United States versus other countries. Another peer also suggested the discussion of disparate wages between men and women should be removed from the opening section. That is another topic that easily has it's own article and it may lead the audience to believe that is the sole issue affecting mothers, especially since it was mentioned multiple times.

Updated statistical data with visuals (i.e. graphs) would make the content easier to understand and appealing to the eye. I think it would also be beneficial to delve into Covid-19's affects on mothers (Single? Familial support? Spousal support? Did remote work improve their work/life balance?).