FOR WOMEN ONLY

Need a female plumber? A female Realtor? Or a female computer programmer? The source is at your fingertips: The 1983-84 Metroplex Women’s Yellow Pages, a 75-page publication listing services offered by women.

The project was inspired by a similar publication in Los Angeles that caught the eye of Diane Jackson Luther, an Arlington woman with experience in advertising and public relations who wanted a more challenging job. Luther is a member of the Network of Executive Women, so she tested the waters for the idea through the organization. She found that there were many women in nontradi-tional jobs in the Dallas area. So she raised $45,000 from private investors for the initial costs, hired a staff of two and began marketing the directory. The project began in November 1982, and by the time the publication was available in April, she and her staff had approached 15,000 potential advertisers. They received 378 orders for ads.

The books have been distributed through mail orders, bookstores and women’s centers, selling at $5 per copy. So far, about 10,000 copies have been sold.

Luther says she’s happy with the response and is confident that next year’s edition will be much larger. Probably her largest vote of confidence came from outside the Metro-plex. A group of women from New York City have asked Luther, now president of Jackson House Inc. to publish a similar directory for NYC. She plans to begin work on that project this month.