Sometimes it seems that until a problem has a name, nothing is done to solve it. At least that's seemed to happen to women who needed help learning to support themselves after having been dependent on their spouses.

Until the mid-1970s when the term "displaced homemakers" was coined, few official programs existed to help these women adjust to reentering the work force.

But in the last 10 years, more than 1000 programs, both privately and federally funded, have sprung up across the country to provide aid, education and support.

Radcliffe College's Discovery program, which began last spring, is just one of these projects. Conceived about three years ago, the program tries to provide women who must return to the work force with the skills necessary to find lucrative employment, says Phyllis Strimling, director of the program.

The business-oriented program begins with a semester of specially structured classes designed to ease the students--ranging in age from late 20s to early 60s--back into the educational process. Discovery participants then enter Radcliffe's regular Business Management Seminars Program and work towards a certificate of advanced studies in management.

Funded entirely by private sources, including a grant from the Jessie B. Cox Foundation in Boston, Discovery pays all tuition costs for its students, and applicants must demonstrate financial need.

Under the supervision of the Radcliffe Seminar Office--in the Cronkhite Graduate Center--the Discovery program meets once a week during the spring semester. Last February, the first group of 20 women began studying communications, accounting and marketing. They also had the option of taking special writing workshops.

The first semester is especially crucial because Discovery seeks to provide these displaced home-makers with the confidence and support that they need to become self-supporting, as well as improved job skills.

This fall all 20 students entered the regular business management program. "It was just wonderful [this fall] to see these women who had come here looking over their shoulders wondering if they belonged here being positive about the educational programs, and meeting their peers," says Strimling.

"They began with some trepidation this year because this was the real thing. But they're here," she says.

Designed for women with some post-high school education, the program seeks applicants who are able to study at a college level or higher.

"We want women to know it's a challenging program academically. We look carefully; it's very selective," says Audrey Smith-Whitaker, who is in charge of recruiting for the program.

Many of the students have completed college but have not used their academic skills in a number of years because they were supported by their husbands.

Because she was not encouraged to look toward a career in college, Discovery student Carol Couture says, "I got a B.A. in psych, and the degree means nothing. The program [at Radcliffe] is specifically geared toward management which is a higher paying field, and, to me, it's so applicable to the everyday working situation."

Nineteen of the first 20 students are divorced, separated or widowed, while the other participant has a disabled spouse.