READERS might like to know that it is 307 years to the day since the publication of the first women's magazine. It was called Ladies Mercury. And yes, it did have a problems page. We can, therefore, take it that even in those chauvinistically male-dominated times, 17th century women had personal problems, which they dared to air and seek advice from an agony aunt.

Today there are at least 40 different magazines - from Bella to Women's Weekly - published for women. And that figure does not include those such as Bunty, written for the teenage miss.

Why women need 40 different magazines is a mystery to me. They all seem to contain similar advertisements, stories, fashions, features, recipes, readers' letters, hackneyed household tips, insultingly simple prize puzzles and, what has become an obligatory feature of every women's weekly, an agony column.

The household tips, which "should not have appeared in any other publication", are blatantly cribbed and submitted to other mags. And some readers seek the same advice from different 'counsellors'. Perhaps they keep writing until they receive the answer to their problem they want to hear.

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I should mention that I'm free of any fetish over female reading material; it's just that our home seems to be a sort of 'clearing house' for women's 'comics' - as I call them. And while they are in transit and I'm waiting for Charlie to fetch our Press, I give them a quick once-over.

Jean buys Bella, later to be exchanged with our daughter's Woman's Own, which is received, along with several other women's weeklies, from her neighbours. After a hasty perusal, Jean passes them to her friends, who in turn pass them to their hairdresser. So they get to read them again, while having their roots touched up, or sitting under the hair dryer.

What I have noticed over the years is that the magazines have followed the overly liberal lead of the national tabloids. There's no pussyfooting about sensitive subjects these days; everything's up-front and out in the open, so much so, that some of the 'comics' should be at least PG rated. Kids shouldn't need lessons on sex if they have access to these frankly informative publications.

Stretching my memory to childhood, I recall that my mother read Red Letter, which I thought soppy, but then she didn't get much romance in her life. My grandparents took the News of the World and the People, which we weren't allowed to read. "Not suitable for children", we were cautioned. So naturally we had a crafty look at them whenever we could.

At the time, it seemed to me, that like Mr William Stickers, a certain Miss Conduct was always in trouble; in her case it was for getting involved with people you would never have thought to be undesirable, but who obviously were, for quite often they were sent to prison for 'committing' her. And, in those days, 'committing' seemed an awful thing to do to a young lady.

Whatever else women's magazines contain, you can be sure that they always have articles on infallible diets, which, they claim, will enable you to wear a two-sizes smaller frock, or squeeze into an over-revealing bikini in time for your holiday. Then, having motivated their readers to embark on a starvation diet, they follow the article with recipes for mouth-watering, but undoubtedly fattening, dishes.

One well-aired theme in any agony aunt's column is man's infidelity to woman. Though you'd think with more than 300 years' coverage of the subject, from the woman's point of view, there would be little more to be said about it. But I have to say it's very surprising what some of us men are supposed to get up to.

This makes me wonder where I've been all my life.