MacLeod compares his study with that of another study performed by a woman Jane Rosegrant, on girls in Clarendon Heights. In MacLeod's comparison he alludes to the fact that girls can come from the same background, have the same "leveled aspirations", and have the same bleak occupational outlook as the boys yet they can still "...realize a goal that seems to promise them freedom..." [pg. 141}. That goal is motherhood. While the boys can't cling to the hope of unconditional love from a child, girls can. While the boys seemingly have nothing to hope for, girls have motherhood. Jane Rosegrant states that "They could be mothers, and nothing and no one could keep them from realizing this goal." [pg. 142]

MacLeod compares the HH's masculinity and formation of peer groups to that of the girls hopes of motherhood. However, the girls are almost disillusioned by motherhood. Much like the Brother's aspirations of making it no matter what with little thought of the what ifs, the girls do not think in the long run. They can be left alone with their children and impoverished. They look to having children (as the Brother's look to education) as a way out, and forget to think about what if it doesn't all work out as they planned.