No Robots, Thanks; Credit Due Will Do

Finke’s total lack of regard for the full-time mother and homemaker is obvious in her flippant labeling--i.e., “Stepford Wives,” “Suzy Homemaker,” “way of the dodo” and “Donna Reed Show clones.”

Today’s economic facts of life are only partly responsible for the large number of women and mothers in the work force. Another reason, rarely mentioned, but as Finke’s article so aptly demonstrates, is that the job of nurturing, rearing and caring for children and the task of providing their basic needs and a secure comfortable home is a job regarded with very little esteem in our society.

This is where the feminist movement has fallen short. Instead of building women’s self-respect, whatever the undertaking, women concluded that their “real” accomplishments in life are to be gained through a title and a paycheck. And one of the results is “a domestic front that’s deteriorated into chaos,” as Finke describes.

My concern is not the laundry left unfolded, but the generation of kids left under-nurtured and neglected by this stampede of women toward self-fulfillment.

Women, it’s OK to stay home. It’s a worthy job. Our kids need us.

KATHY MATHENY

Culver City