KIEV, Soviet Union—Zoya Idenko is the model of the young Soviet mother liberated by a local day care center that permits her to hold a job. With her 3‐year‐old son in a state nursery, she works as a guide for Intourist and sometimes also teaches English at a night school.

Under the highly subsidized Soviet day care system, Mrs. Idenko pays a modest 10.50 rubles ($13.86) per month—about one‐tenth of her pay—for six days a week of child care. She drops h,er boy off at about 8 A.M. and picks him up at 7 P.M. He gets three meals and a snack daily.

Child‐rearing, never had much attraction for Mrs. Idenko.

“I went back to work three months after my son was born,” she said. “I could have waited a year legally and still kept my job, but it was difficult for me to bring up the baby and I wanted to get out of the house. My mother‐inlaw lives with us and she took care of him.”

The very idea that some American women want to stay at home and raise their own children astonished this 30‐year‐old woman. For her, work was the only satisfying outlet. And despite her frequent contact with Englishspeaking foreign tourists, she knew nothing about the range of voluntary and community activities done by nonworking American women.