WASHINGTON INSIGHT

LADIES TO THE REAR: Reps. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) and Marge Roukema (R-N.J.) are still fuming about it. The two women played key roles in the long struggle to pass the landmark Family and Medical Leave Act recently. But at the bill-signing ceremony, they were left in the back while senior male lawmakers took the spotlight next to President Clinton. “Often you see women start the issue, educate on the issue, fight for the issue, and then when it becomes fashionable, men push us aside and they get away with it, if there are new boys in town,” said Schroeder, who wound up nearly out of camera range at the White House event. Added Roukema: “Pat Schroeder started it and I helped finish it, and yet it’s as if we weren’t there. I didn’t even get a pen or a copy of the bill.” In front for the signing were Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Reps. William D. Ford (D-Mich.) and William L. Clay (D-Mo.).