I’m sure if I were a woman I should hate
being regarded as someone designed by Nature
to answer the telephone, make sandwiches, make tea;
or be fucked, look after a family, wash, cook, sew.
I would want to be an engineer, I would want to be regarded
As a person whose sex, though inescapable, was accidental
and not of the first importance. Though we don’t deny
there are maternal feelings and traces of masochism…
Still, though men are in the rat race, and the American Satan
with not much help from others could burn us all up,
even so – if men are devils – we mustn’t think all women
are perfect, downtrodden angels. There are nasty people about
of both sexes – surely you know some? Equally nasty
(or equally nice?) – that’s one “equality of the sexes.”