The sociologist R. Bierstedt locates power in three sources: numbers of people, social organization, and available resources within the group. Women who are family day care providers can be empowered when they operate within a network of providers; when they are affiliated with a professional sponsoring organization; and when they deploy personal, professional, familial, and social resources. Providers must understand the reasons for networking and the advantages of professional affiliation. These ideas are relatively easy to grasp; more difficult is understanding multiple roles, in which are invested not only personal and professional expectations but also familial and societal assumptions and demands. Through the aegis of the professional organization, family day care providers should expand beyond local horizons and develop statewide and nationwide associations in order to have an impact on legislative and administrative regulations affecting child care in general and family day care in particular. The New Jersey Family Day Care Organization is one such group developed to influence legislation and meet additional needs of family day care providers. (RH)