The Price of Homemaking

What Is A Wife Worth? By Michael H. Minton with Jean Libman Block William Morrow and Company, New York (192 pp.) The subtitle of this book?"The Leading Expert Places a High Dollar Value on Homemaking"?although im modest, accurately reflects its content. Minton, a Chicago-based family lawyer, faithfully and painstaking ly traces the worth of a homemaker from the Industrial Revolution to what he calls the modern "corporate wife." The book, which is directed to a female audience, is highly recommended for those who favor an easy-to read, nontechnical account of how the new equitable distribution statutes affect the recognition of a homemaker spouse's contribution to the family unit. Writing in a "give-em-the-facts," shotgun prose, Minton "valuates" the relevant factors of a homemaker's con tribution. They include tasks performed, home and fami ly size, whether domestic help is employed, and the homemaker's contribution toward the other spouse's business activities and social duties, such as entertaining business colleagues, bosses, and customers. Lawyers seeking a more rigorous case-study approach to the topic along with some useful trial techniques and demonstrative evidence must look elsewhere. Reading What Is A Wife Worth? is like being lost in the library stacks for two hours but emerging with only a handful of worthwhile ideas. Instead, lawyers should read Minton's presentation paper, "Valuing the Homemaker's Ser vices," from the ABA Family Law Section Annual Meeting in Dallas (August 1979) and his trial simula tion?direct examination of a management consultant or industrial psychologist?in "Valuing the Contribution of the Homemaker at Trial," 1 Fair$hare, Number 10, (Oc tober 1981). The book's topic is timely and important and the sub ject of many recent court decisions. See, for example, Finley v. Finley, 422 N.E.2d 289 (Ind. Ct. App. 1981), and Lacey v. Lacey, 273 N.W. 2d 142 (Wis. S. Ct. 1970). In Finley, the court ruled, "both spouses are not required to have engaged in income generating activity in order to