Taking Time For Children

George Bush has discovered women: that they work (hence his proposal in July for a $2.2 billion child-care tax credit) and, now, that they have children. Attempting to close what remains of his once cavernous gender gap, Bush last week came out in favor of unpaid leave for parents on the job. Parting company with the Reagan Administration and his running mate, Dan Quayle, Bush surprised a gathering of the Illinois Federation of Republican Women, saying, "We need to ensure that women don't have to worry about getting their jobs back after having a child or caring for a child during a serious illness."

Suddenly, parental-leave legislation that House Democrats were afraid to schedule because it was sure to fail was put on the calendar. The bill, first introduced by Democratic Congresswoman Pat Schroeder in 1986, would require employers of more than 50 people to allow men or women up to ten weeks of leave to care for a newborn, a seriously ill child or an ailing parent. When House Majority Whip Tony Coelho took a head count this week, he found so much new support among moderates that he has decided to schedule a vote as soon as possible.

Bush's endorsement came a week after a coalition of women's groups urged Michael Dukakis to put more effort into passing the bill. They also demanded that Bush drop his opposition to it. The Vice President is no doubt aware that 10 million more women than men will vote on Nov. 8. As National Women's Political Caucus Chair Irene Natividad warns, "No one can get elected without us, not to the Senate, not to the House and certainly not to the presidency."

Opponents of the bill, especially small-business owners, fear that temporary replacements would be costly and less productive. Says Texas Republican Congressman Dick Armey: "Parental leave is really nothing but a form of yuppie welfare financed by other American workers." In a letter to his colleagues, Armey describes the slippery benefits slope that might follow, warning that parents would soon be demanding paid parental leave, then health benefits, then mandated day-care services. "I shudder to think what would come beyond that," he writes. Sweden, perhaps.

^ If Congress gets to the measure this month, as planned, parental leave may become a reality. With the outlook for a Democratic $2 billion-plus day-care plan increasingly bleak, the bill may be the only solid legislation women get this year for their 10 million-vote differential.