I want to read Stephanie Coontz's piece in the New York Times and add the required "rah-rah" every time she talks about paid maternity leave, but I can't. I've tried to read it two or three times, but it's just too depressing and… well… clueless.

We're in a crappy economy. As I mentioned in the comment section of a recent blog post, my own family hit a rough patch last fall. My husband's new job does not provide health insurance or paid vacation days. One of my best friends diapers two-year olds at a daycare center to pay the bills; she has a PhD from NYU. Other friends are working 6 days a week, while getting paid for 5 or living without any health insurance. Almost everyone I know is seriously scraping by.

It's very hard to worry about gender equality, when you can't pay the mortgage.