Delicate Balance

Lunden says the networks have come ''a long way from Florence Henderson in the early days of the Today show, where she couldn't stand up because God forbid anyone should see she was pregnant." (When Lunden's daughters Lindsay, now 7, and Sarah, now 3, were born, GMA used her on-camera pregnancies to its advantage.) But she adds that much of the TV business ''still has to realize the upside of accommodating mothers.'' Recently, Good Morning America's producers asked her to spend two weeks on the road, leaving the kids behind. ''I said, 'You want to use me because I have this wonderful image of being a mom? Fine. Guess what goes with that image? Three kids.''' She won her point, and ''ABC won, because they had a happy Joan Lunden.''

Though Connie Chung's decision has been widely praised by her colleagues, most also echo syndicated columnist Linda Ellerbee's belief that Chung's ability to get her way ''speaks mainly to the issue of clout.'' Ellerbee, 46, whose two children are grown, entered the news business in 1973 ''as part of the first wave of women broadcasters. We didn't dare say, 'Gee, I need some time off to be with the baby,' and we probably should have. It took us this long to be able to ask for it. The role model for men was always: Your family will come second, your job first. We thought when women got into power, they'd show us a new way to do things.'' Now she thinks maybe they are, and she is optimistic that the network's acceptance of Chung's choice will affect others. ''If an ordinary correspondent walked in and asked for what Connie got,'' she concludes, ''it would be very difficult for CBS to say no without risking a lawsuit.''

Paula Zahn believes that the news business will continue to change as more women gain the power to define their jobs, whether that means maternal leave, more flexible hours, or walking away from a five-day schedule. ''We all fantasize about that,'' she admits, but the newswomen say it still becomes reality for only a few. Chung ''realized that her family came first,'' Zahn says, ''and she was prepared to tell that to CBS, and for the possibility that CBS might say no. Right now, the second generation of women — the ones who broke into the business 10 and 15 years ago — are childbearing. And many of us realize, as we've made this trip through the local trenches, that there is life after network news. The system has never been tested before. Connie is the first. But as time goes on, we'll see more and more women who have that leverage.''