PERSPECTIVE ON WOMEN : Women Must Make Their Megatrend : The baby-boomers have been building political and economic power for 20 years; they must now energize those resources.

Let cynics greet the “Year of the Woman” with skepticism; 1992 will still go down in history as a turning point. Not only are women running for office in record numbers; the millions of campaign dollars contributed by women have also put their agenda in the forefront. But it is not happening only in politics.

By year’s end, women-owned businesses will employ more Americans than all of the Fortune 500 companies. In the Winter Olympics, women won nine of the U.S. team’s 11 medals, including the five golds. In the fashion industry, heretofore dominated by men, Liz Claiborne sold almost four times more than the top three male designers put together.

These changes symbolize the critical mass of support that now exists among women and fair-minded men for the freedom and opportunity the women’s movement has always sought. Acceptance of social change builds slowly until a threshold of critical mass is achieved. Then it is only a matter of time before the majority embraces it. At that point, a trend becomes a megatrend, an idea whose time has come. Although many obstacles remain before women’s liberation is achieved, the movement toward it is unstoppable.

Simple demographics plays a part, too. From Margaret Thatcher to Gloria Steinem, exceptional women have made their mark on the world. But behind these women stands the great wave of baby-boom women, the first generation with full-time, lifelong careers. For a decade or two, as CEOs, activists, attorneys, politicians, designers, theologians and athletes, they have quietly introduced feminine values into their corner of a male-dominated world. Now they are ready for a bigger stage--leadership in business, politics, society.

The United States counts only two elected women senators and three women governors, but these depressing numbers obscure how many women hold the statewide offices that are the steppingstones to the governorship: There are 14 state treasurers, 10 secretaries of state and seven lieutenant governors. Women’s fury over the treatment of Anita Hill and 1992’s anti-incumbent mood guarantee new female faces from statehouse to Congress. Early in the 21st Century, women will hold at least one-third of Senate seats and governorships. I predict that the first woman President will be elected in 2004 or 2008.

That benchmark, however striking, will not signal that women’s liberation has arrived. Sexual harassment, sexist institutions and horrifying violence against women tell us that the quest for women’s rights will continue a long time. Male-dominated institutions, from religious fundamentalism to the Senate Judiciary Committee to the Supreme Court, will be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.

But women are taking economic and political power, building new institutions, infusing them with humanistic values. Two contradictory realities exist side by side. Some feminists look at the old and say: “Nothing is changing. Women are worse off than ever.” If they looked instead at what women are achieving, they would see something far more positive.

There is a vacuum in U.S. leadership today at the highest levels. A bankrupt patriarchy is falling apart at the seams--and then arguing about the pieces.

We need a new vision, a new social order. For a decade or more, Americans have been yearning to get beyond the tired old labels of Left vs. Right, to synthesize the caring of the liberal with the fiscal responsibility of the conservative, to create social programs that help people become independent of government aid. The women who learned how to succeed in a “man’s world,” while integrating their own female values into the process, constitute America’s best hope for creating a social agenda that is caring, concrete and cost-effective.

Opportunities in leadership will abound in the 1990s, but baby-boom women who would accept them--and the responsibilities that are part of the package--must begin now to prepare for jobs they never dreamed they would hold. That might mean running for the statehouse or learning how to raise large sums of money.

In 1992, the women’s movement entered a new stage. For 20 years, women have built political and economic power. The challenge now is to access and energize those resources. A metaphor for the next phase may be the symbolic shift from consciousness-raising to fund-raising. From “Look how horrible this is!” to “Here is exactly what we propose to do about it. Will you support us?”

Women’s liberation is not the end, not by any means; it is the beginning of a lot of work. The world needs to be totally transformed so that women and men can create, desire, build and play. If women are willing to answer the call of leadership, then we have already begun.