The more mobile the child becomes, the more imperative that he or she carry this protective force within, and the greater the pressure on the family and the mother to do the job right in the years before full mobility occurs. This means that, unless we give up our belief in the protective power of parental love, as our society becomes more transient we will expect our mothers to perform more and more effectively. In general, we believe that no mother substitute, no matter how excellent or well-trained, can perform this ritual task as well as a mother. Therefore, "mother" will continue to hold an idealized value which rises above the rational and beyond the realistic.

4. There appears to be a set of basic values which focus on two related, but independent issues, each with a different impact on the family and the society. One relates to a mother doing things (i.e. work, study) inside or outside the family as a system. The other relates to her doing things inside or outside the family home as a structural space. We can develop various combinations of these two issues to obtain slightly different value orientations. For example, a mother who undertakes studies at home may be encouraged more than a woman who wishes to go away for an educational program. A woman who works both outside the family and outside the home may be actively discouraged and her actions disapproved.

If we add to these combinations such factors as doing paid or unpaid work; full-time or part-time work or study; and so on, we find a still wider range of potential value orientations. There is a value discrepancy between mothers of low income families who work to get/keep their family off welfare and mothers of middle income families who work for personal satisfaction or to improve the family's finances. The first is actively encouraged (to reduce the welfare rolls); the second may be admired but is generally not actively encouraged. Mothers of high income families are generally exempted from this conflict since they can afford to purchase the best substitute mothering services.

There is a value discrepancy between reducing the welfare rolls and keeping mothers at home with their young children. In an economic pinch, the conflict becomes reducing the welfare rolls and discouraging women from taking jobs which men could (and should) hold.

5. Finally there is a value orientation which holds that women who defy their "traditional", "normal", "biological", "proper" place in society, get what they deserve, including poor day care services, even if this results in delinquency, disturbed children, broken families and so on .....

With this set of values as background, we can assume that governmental policy will have the following characteristics (at the very least):