Tom FiedlerThe politics of motherhood

You're no doubt familiar with the ``gender gap,'' the difference between men and women in their support for any candidate or issue. Bob Dole is already sick to death hearing about the ``gender gap'' he faces in the presidential election.

In recent polls, the presumptive Republican nominee runs dead even with President Clinton among male voters, 45 percent each. But among women voters, who make up slightly more than half the electorate, Clinton stomps Dole by 52 percent to 34 percent.

That's a ``gender gap'' of 18 percentage points, the broadest chasm in national politics since Jimmy Carter faced Ronald Reagan in 1980. Many believe that if it doesn't close soon, women will return Clinton to the White House and Democrats to the Congress.

So what are Dole and his party allies to do?

If they want to bridge the gender gap, they need to understand the group driving it: Moms.

They are no small bloc. Census figures show that about 60 percent of all adult women are mothers. They will cast about a third of all the votes this fall.

Of course mothers aren't monolithic in their political opinions or loyalties. But sociologists have long agreed that they generally have a distinct view of the world around them, one that is sharply different from most men and even different in many respects from women who have never had children.

Professor Susan Bailey, executive director of the Wellesley College Center for Women, said mothers see themselves first and foremost as family care-givers.

``They live their lives taking responsibility for elderly parents, for the children, for their neighbors and their friends,'' Bailey said. ``They're the ones who bake the casseroles, who bring it to a neighbor in difficulty, who wipe the runny noses, who clean the clothes. These are things that are seen as their responsibility and it's a responsibility they willingly assume, seeing these things as important.

``So when they see political issues, they are the first to say, `What is this thing going to mean for my children, or for my friends' children? And who is going to pick up the slack if that program is gone? Probably me.' ''

Political pollster Celinda Lake contends that this concern for the well-being of others is creating what she calls the ``anxious woman'' voter, a counterweight to the widely analyzed ``angry white male'' voter who dominated the 1994 mid-term elections that sent a Republican majority to Congress for the first time since 1954.

These ``anxious'' women, most of them mothers, could easily undo that in the 1996 elections, according to experts.

``Women are what I call `small c' conservatives,'' said Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate.

``They are less likely to send boys to war, less likely to cut the social-safety net, less likely to want to see changes in environmental protections. And these things are much more important to them than the so-called `women's issues.' To the extent that Republicans are seen as cutting this safety net, these women are alarmed.''

It is clear by now that the biggest problem Dole faces in making a contest of this fall's election is speaking to these mothers' concerns. His ham-fistedness in this area was evident in a speech last week to a group of Republican women where the senator insisted he would eliminate the gender gap by reminding women of the issues he has backed.

Dole cited his authorship in 1994 of a measure called the Violence Against Women Bill, placing harsh penalties on repeat rapists. It seemed a good example but for this problem: Dole actually voted against the measure when it became part of President Clinton's anti-crime bill that year. It passed into law only because the president rounded up enough Democratic votes to overcome Dole's opposition.

Likewise, when I asked a senior Dole aide last week to name a campaign issue that had special appeal to mothers, the aide cited the senator's recent attacks on Clinton's ``liberal'' judicial appointments. Lenient judges, the aide said, leave criminals on the streets, which frightens any mother.

Perhaps that's the case. But Professor Bailey, among others, wondered whether most mothers will grasp the connection between Dole's attack on judicial appointments and a threat to their children.

Contrast that to the White House schedule in the days leading up to today. Without putting a label on it, Ann Lewis, the Clinton campaign's deputy manager, said the entire week was tailored to Mother's Day.

On one day, the president attacked teen smoking; on another, he and Mrs. Clinton urged more adoptions; on a third, they touted the importance of women's health care; on a fourth, they honored older women care-givers.

``What women are concerned about most is the family,'' Lewis said. ``They don't think politics has much to do with their lives. But if we can convince them that there is a connection between politics and real life, then we'll have them on our side.''

Lewis said the president's re-election message will be shaped to respond to what she called ``kitchen-table concerns,'' those matters that come up when a family sits down to dinner. Thus Clinton's proposal on Medicare reform will reassure mothers that her elderly parents won't lose benefits; welfare reform will be framed to alleviate worries about child care and the hike in the minimum wage.

The most important issues on mothers' minds, she believes, are education, the immediate environment (clean air, water and neighborhoods), women's health and a government prepared to help them cope with parenting.

Perhaps no single issue better makes the last point than the Family Medical Leave Act, one of the first bills Clinton signed in 1993. The White House fully intends to remind women of Clinton's support for the measure, which passed over Dole's vigorous opposition.

``Nobody should be forced to choose between a sick child and a job,'' Lewis said, ``but that's what many mothers had to do before that law was passed.''

Dole isn't without some support among mothers. A Voices of Florida survey in March found that stay-at-home moms favored him slightly over Clinton. Pollster Ann Selzer said these women, a fraction of all mothers, tend to vote much like their husbands because they are dependent on them for economic security.

But among working women -- moms included -- Dole barely mustered half the support of his Democratic rival. That's a huge gap. A mothers' gap.