In this article the author discusses two trends relating to women and labour force participation which have been working in parallel. The first is the trend for more of those women who have children to stay in, or return to, the workforce after the birth of a child or during the early child raising years. The second trend has been occurring with less fanfare, perhaps because it has not attracted the need for specific services, and that is a decline among young women in the workforce who have the care of dependent children.