Hard-Working Mothers

Am I the only woman in L.A. who thinks Jim Sanderson (author of the Wednesday column Liberated Male) is about as “liberated” as Archie Bunker? It seems to me that his world is populated solely by men who bust their guts supporting women, and women who sit back doing their nails and nursing grudges about child-support checks.

Earth-to-Sanderson: Working women constitute a majority of the adult female population in this country. Many of these women are also mothers, and many of the mothers are single mothers into the bargain. If you are looking for a large audience of readers who can identify with the people you write about, try to visualize situations in which women are economically self-sufficient and wrestle with real economic problems, because these situations are far more typical than the ones you often describe. For every “Ted” (“Mr. Ordinary as a Walking Time Bomb,” May 21) keeping a stiff upper lip because his wife doesn’t understand him, there are probably 50 single mothers who would be real happy just to find dinner on the table when they come home at night.

This is not to trivialize the “suppressed rage millions of males feel at their restricted lock-step lives.” But has Sanderson really not noticed that women are living in the same world as men these days, with the same pressures and problems? This would not be news to anyone but him, which is why I particularly object to his appropriation of the title Liberated Male. Liberated? Baloney!

If you want Liberated , maybe you could get my husband to write columns for you. He irons his own shirts, makes dinner and takes care of our son when I get called in to work in the middle of the night--just the same as I do for him. I think he is pretty liberated.

MARGARET DAUGHERTY

El Segundo