Business Notes the Cabinet . . . And Barbara Makes Three

George Bush appears to be bringing his Cabinet into the 1990s: he's adding women. The Cabinet has two: Lynn Martin (Labor) and Carla Hills (Trade). Last week Bush nominated a third, management consultant Barbara Franklin, 51, to take over the Commerce Department from Robert Mosbacher, who is leaving to run the President's re-election campaign.

If confirmed, Franklin will bring a power-packed resume to the position. The Harvard M.B.A. served as a headhunter in the Nixon Administration, a vice chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission from 1973 to '79, and is a director of seven corporations, among them Aetna, Dow Chemical and Westinghouse. A savvy Republican fund raiser, Franklin co-chaired a dinner last fall that gathered $1.2 million for Bush's 1992 campaign. Her appointment is also a campaign tactic to boost Bush's support among women, 54% of the voters.