The Politics of Motherhood
http://www.momsrising.org/blog/the-politics-of-motherhood/The fact is, working mothers, or at least those with limited education and lower-end jobs, have almost no employee benefits that allow time away from work when their children are sick or even when they give birth. Many of these moms have to work — with more than 6 out of 10 families relying on women to bring in at least one-quarter of the family income.
This disparity between highly-educated and economically secure mothers and those with less education and income is striking, as I testified at the hearing, pointing out that college-educated workers are far more likely to have access to paid maternity leave than workers with a high school degree or less.
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According to an analysis by the U.S. Census Bureau, from 1961 to 1965, only 14 percent of college-educated women workers received paid leave before or after the birth of their first child. The number jumped to 59 percent in the immediate period after passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and held at 66 percent in 2008.
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Compare that with less-educated workers: The law has made little difference to them because they are less likely to have access to paid sick days or paid short-term disability. For workers with less than a high school degree, access to paid leave after child birth remained nearly constant from 1961 to 2008 at about 18 percent — yes, 18 percent — less than one for every four college-educated workers with paid maternity leave.
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...2004?...maybe sooner, like 2001?
My kid gets sick, and there's no such thing as sick child care... I have 3 kids, so they will cycle through an illness and even drag me into it sometimes, that's WEEKS away from work...
Instead i take what freelancing work i can and rely on food stamps to make up the difference, it isn't easy and we are definitely in poverty...BUT I am home when they get off the bus and there for them if they have to go to the doctor or something. (since my daughter has a medical issue, we need to have tests done 1-2x per year in the big city, more often as she approaches puberty) I wish we could have more and do more like other families...we have never been on a real vacation or gone to an amusement park...but we get lots of enjoyment out of our natural surroundings so hopefully they will turn out okay... 
