http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/opinion/campaign-stops/the-fight-working-moms-won.html 2016-09-17 21:33:06 The Fight Working Moms Won Trump’s paid leave plan is flawed, leaves out fathers — and represents real progress. === Working mothers, take note: You have won the culture war. Now you are making advances in the policy battle. This presidential race has become, at least in part, a debate over how best to help you balance work and home, not whether you should be working at all. On Tuesday, Donald J. Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to put forward a Any discussion of paid leave in a presidential campaign is a recent phenomenon. The first time the issue was raised prominently by a candidate was when Hillary Clinton made her initial run at the White House, in the 2008 election, and The 1980s and 1990s were full of working-mom fearmongering. The media jumped on scare studies and stories about day care centers harming children — including Policies to help working parents balance family and career were similarly divisive. The Family and Medical Leave Act, which today guarantees just 12 weeks of unpaid leave, was introduced in Congress Democrats weren’t completely afraid of work and family issues. The first thing President Bill Clinton signed into law was the Family and Medical Leave Act. He also expanded some child care assistance for low-income families. But the issue of paid family leave rarely came up for the next decade and a half. The political challenge for these policies is that the constituencies can be fleeting. For one thing, Americans may not even be aware that Still, the issue has broader political salience now. That’s thanks in part to the determination, or necessity, of working women. The growing demand has led to four different states creating their own paid leave programs, with a high-profile win in New York from the fiscally centrist Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo just this year. They serve as proving grounds that leave can work. Today, these policies have huge popular backing; When he was still in the presidential running, Senator Marco Rubio became the first Republican contender to formally broach the topic in a campaign. He put forward What Mr. Trump has put forward, however, is a world apart. He proposes creating a totally new social program to give new mothers paid leave. It’s worth repeating: The Republican nominee for president has proposed a new government program to help working mothers. Certainly his motivations are most likely political, given that he trails his rival by Mrs. Clinton, for her part, started her current presidential campaign Like Mr. Trump, Mrs. Clinton has also put forward plans to tackle the high cost of child care, although her plan would be much more progressive, capping costs at a percentage of a family’s income, while Mr. Trump’s would But the debate is now about how, not whether, to support working parents. Instead of being frowned at by Marilyn Quayle, attendees at this year’s Republican National Convention heard Ivanka Trump applaud working moms. “As a mother myself of three young children, I know how hard it is to work while raising a family,” Perhaps 2017 will be the year when the rhetoric finally reaches reality.