Today, the way we see the right to time off to bond with and adjust to a new child has changed. There is perhaps no better proof than the 2016 presidential contest. For probably the first time ever, all of the current Democratic candidates openly support a national paid leave program. Things are even more surprising on the Republican side of the aisle: In September, Marco Rubio became the first Republican presidential candidate to put forward a paid family leave proposal. No other Republican candidate has joined him; Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina have all come out against a federal program.

But paid leave went from a nonissue to a presidential debate staple within just decades. The shift is not because the economic viability of the policy has changed. It’s because the way the public views working mothers has been radically transformed. The economic realities of employment and parenthood are agonizing, many of the proposed solutions are tepid and the political reality for any of them is bleak. But it’s a milestone that they at least exist on both sides of the aisle.

Hillary Clinton is a perfect embodiment of how far we’ve come. Back in 1980, her desire to maintain her own career — as well as her maiden name — was blamed for Bill Clinton’s failure to get re-elected as governor of Arkansas. Once her husband became president, she got caught in a culture war battle over her own ambitions and career. A perfect example of that controversy was the infamous cookie incident. In response to the growing agitation over her involvement in policy, she said, “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was fulfill my profession.” The remark led her not just to backtrack, but to enter the first Family Circle bake-off against Barbara Bush.

The F.M.L.A. was introduced in Congress, in some version, regularly between 1984 and 1993, according to an advocacy group that worked closely on the bill, only to be felled by two vetoes by President George H. W. Bush when Congress finally passed it in 1990 and 1992. At the time, Representative John A. Boehner characterized it as “another example of yuppie empowerment.” Advocates were accused of supporting Communism and trying to destroy capitalism.

It took a long, drawn-out battle — and the building of a giant coalition to support it — to get a small modicum of coverage that today still doesn’t reach about 40 percent of people.