Patriarchal dystopia. Women considered inferior and adult males dominate all women. Resistant women are medicated. Occupation by competitive exam with poetry the occupation with the highest status. See also 1972 Elgin, which includes this story on 7-31 and 1978 Russ,\ The Two of Them, which uses some characters from the story. The female author held a doctorate in linguistics from the University of California, San Diego and wrote extensively on the subject.\ Her birth name was Patricia Anne Suzette Wilkins.
}, year = {1969}, journal = {The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction}, volume = {36.5 }, pages = {77-97}, month = {05/1969}, issn = {00024-984X }, note = {Rpt. in\ World{\textquoteright}s Best Science Fiction 1970. Ed. Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr (New York: Ace Books, 1970), 105-27; in her\ At the Seventh Level\ (New York: DAW Books, 1972), 7-31; and in\ Feminist Philosophy and Science Fiction: Utopias and Dystopias. Ed. Judith A. Little (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007), 215-36.
}, language = {eng}, }