In terms of family roles, it is apparent that women must be responsible for the child-bearing function (although even this may soon be challenged). The remaining activities fall into three groups: those related to child-rearing; those related to family/home maintenance; and those related to achieving financial independence within the larger society. Traditionally, these are divided so that the woman/mother performs the first two sets and the man/father performs the third. However, only the third set of activities are rewarded directly through monetary means. Society tends to reward child- rearing and family maintenance activities through such things as "protective" policies which are rarely viewed by women as rewards for their labour.

Furthermore, in times of national crisis, the government can call upon the women to make additional contributions through the performance of economic activities outside the home. At the end of such crises, women are expected to resume their former activities, having received the heartfelt gratitude of society and a heartfelt cheer of relief from their families.

The outcome of such policies is that women/mothers are valued largely for their contribution to the family unit, a contribution which tend to be measured emotionally rather than economically. The men/fathers, however, are valued in terms of their contribution to the larger society, a contribution which is measured economically. For women, then, an economic issue has an emotional reward. The resulting incongruence is hard to accept. A second incongruence is that, in a society which espouses the value of the family, the contributions made by women to those families are valued less than the contributions made by the men.

2. There appear to be no explicit policy statements about what type of family is most valued. In the near past we could more or less agree that a family consisted of one father who earned wages to support his family, one mother who stayed home to maintain the house and children; and 2.4 children. In the more distant past, this nuclear family was very often enlarged by the presence of resident relatives.

In 1971, census figures indicated that among two-parent families (i.e. those with one mother and one father) with children under 15 years of age, one mother in three did not stay home but went out to work. Among female-headed one-parent families with children under 15 years of age, one mother in two did not stay home but went out to work. ^1.

^1. Statistics Canada, Families by labour force activity of family members, 1971 Census of Canada, Catalogue 93-723 (revised ed.)