Living: Children of The World

The U.S. lags behind almost every other industrial nation, and indeed much of the world, in offering an adequate child-care system. More than 100 other countries have national policies, and many European countries have extensive networks of centers that are subsidized and regulated by the government. Nevertheless, as women flood the marketplace, even countries with relatively comprehensive systems find there are simply too many youngsters who need watching. A sampling:

FRANCE. Working mothers are legally entitled to at least 16 weeks' maternity leave at 84% of their salaries. Some 79,000 children are cared for in 1,494 centers, called creches, of which 167 are private. The state-run centers are open eleven hours a day and cost between $3 and $17.50 daily. Because the creches are oversubscribed, the government offers subsidies of as much as $340 a month to parents who hire help at home. In addition, there are haltes garderies, where children up to five can be left to play for a few hours at a time, and nourrices, mothers who care for other children as well as their own.

SCANDINAVIA. In Sweden, new parents are guaranteed a one-year leave of absence after childbirth; the first half is reserved for the mother, who receives 90% of her salary from social security. Denmark offers new parents a maximum leave of only 24 weeks, the first 14 for mothers, but has a larger ! network of day-care facilities. Nearly 44% of Danish children younger than three and 69% of those between ages three and five are enrolled in a public facility. With fees as low as $115 a month, demand is high. There are so few spaces for infants that municipalities now pay women to watch two or three babies in their homes.

ISRAEL. New mothers are entitled to twelve weeks' paid and 40 weeks' unpaid leave. The country has 900 subsidized centers, which charge between $27 and $90 a month according to family income. Of 240,000 Jewish youngsters four and under, nearly a quarter are in day care. (Few of Israel's Arab families take part.) Critics complain that the children-to-teacher ratio is much too high (as many as 25 to 1), and budget constraints forced the government to stop building new centers four years ago. Private social-service groups have continued their building efforts, but there is still a shortage. "If we could build another 200 day-care centers," says Yvette Saadan, director of the Labor Ministry Women's Bureau, "we could fill them."

JAPAN. Most Japanese still believe a woman is shirking her responsibility if she is not at home with her children. But the number of married Japanese women who have returned to work has quadrupled in the past 20 years. Mothers are given 14 weeks of maternity leave but usually quit work to care for their babies. Child-care facilities vary between licensed and unlicensed, public and private. Most of the nearly 23,000 licensed centers do not accept newborns, and the better ones have long waiting lists. Despite the growing number of working women, the government is not pushing to expand day care. Observes one Tokyo university professor: "Discrimination against women exists in various forms, with insufficiency of the child-care system being one example."