Drawing on in-depth interviews with 20 family child care providers of diverse race, ethnicity, immigrant status, and social class, this book explores the social, political, and economic forces and processes that draw women into the work of family child care. The articles dispel not only myths about why women choose to be family child care providers and what it means to them, but also expose how our social attitudes about care and our public child care policies shortchange these providers, most of whom are working mothers themselves with their own tenuous hold on self-sufficiency. The chapters are as follows: (1) "'Some People Don't Consider It Work': Investigating the Work of Family Child Care"; (2) "'I Know How It Feels To Give Your Kids to Somebody Else': Synthesizing the Family and the Market in the Work of Family Child Care"; (3) "'You're Just a Housewife': Contesting Stereotypes about Motherhood, Marriage, and Family Child Care"; (4) "'When You Have Your Family, You Need Your Money': Employment Opportunities and the Meaning of Family Child Care Work"; (5) "'It's Word of Mouth': Social Networks, Local Markets, and the Provision of State-Subsidized Family Child Care"; (6) "'That's Where I Saw the Need': Family Child Care as Community Care Work"; and (7) "'I Had To Educate the World That This Is My Work': Redefining and Revaluing Family Child Care Work." (Includes notes organized by chapter, and contains a 229-item bibliography.) (HTH)