The Female Man

by Joanna Russ

It’s very upsetting to think that women make up only one-tenth of society, but it’s true. For example: My doctor is male. My lawyer is male. My tax-accountant is male. The grocery-store-owner (on the corner) is male. The janitor in my apartment building is male. The president of my bank is male. The manager of the neighborhood supermarket is male. My landlord is male. Most taxi-drivers are male. All cops are male. All firemen are male. The designers of my car are male. The factory workers who made the car are male. The dealer I bought it from is male. Almost all my colleagues are male. My employer is male. The Army is male. The Navy is male. The government is (mostly) male. I think most of the people in the world are male. Now it’s true that waitresses, elementary-school teachers, secretaries, nurses, and nuns are female, but how many nuns do you meet in the course of the usual business day? Right? And secretaries are female only until they get married, at which time, they change or something because you usually don’t see them again at all. I think it’s a legend that half the population of the world is female; where on earth are they keeping them all? No, if you tot up all those categories of women above, you can see clearly and beyond the shadow of a doubt that there are maybe 1–2 women for every 11 or so men and that hardly justifies making such a big fuss. It’s just that I’m selfish. My friend Kate says that most of the women are put into female-banks when they grow up ...