Women in the Labor Force and Paid Maternity Leave

In lecture we discussed women's labor force participation increases with the increasing higher education of women. What I found interesting is that the access to paid leave varied with women's education level. According to an article on motherhood, in the U.S., women with the most education get the most maternity leave while women who are least educated have the least access to paid leave. The article finds that from 2006 to 2008, 56.1% of women still worked full time during their pregnancy and only left work upon reaching the due date, and this is the consequence of not having access to paid leave. In fact, in the U.S., almost half of first-time mothers still do not have access to paid leave from work. Maybe this is what is causing women today to stay single longer and marry and have children later in their lives.

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/11/29/work-leave-patterns-among-first-time-u-s-mothers/