Founder of ‘Older Women’ Dies

Tish Sommers, a feminist who helped found the nationwide Older Women’s League, died of cancer at her home today. Sommers, who was 71, helped bring attention to the problems of older women and women in mid-life.

The Washington-based league, which began in Oakland five years ago, claims 14,000 members. Sommers invented the term “displaced homemaker,” which describes women whose economic security has vanished because they were widowed or divorced, when she became one herself after a divorce in 1971 after 20 years of marriage.