When working as a farm veterinarian, I was constantly confronted by the primary importance of the female animal. It is the cows which produce the milk and the milk is used to produce a wide range of important foods and other products. The cows give rise to the calves which grow to become the next generation of milk producers. It is the ewes which are retained for their wool and to produce lambs. The sow and her production of piglets is of the greatest importance in the pork industry. It is the hens which lay eggs. Brood mares give rise to generations of foals and so on. Male animals are of lesser importance. They are the source of the semen used in fertilisation, leading to the production of calves, lambs, piglets and so on, but rarely deliver it ‘personally’. Most male calves barely survive birth, and those that do are only retained to grow large and be eaten.

On the other hand, most human cultures regard women as inferior to men. Women are confined to the home, have little or no access to education, play no part in the organisation of communities and are valued solely as providers of food and for the rearing of children. In many cultures, the women work while the men sit around and talk. Even in the ‘more advanced’ Western cultures, women strive to be taken seriously, are excluded from more prestigious positions and, even when doing the same work as men, are paid less.

It is time this imbalance is corrected. Women and men are equally capable of achievement in all areas of work and thinking; the much vaunted physical superiority of men is negated by the use of modern machinery and technology. However, equality is not the goal, but recognition. In fact, we men are inferior to women. Only they can produce the children which are needed to keep the human species in existence. They enable the start of new lives, protect and nourish the developing foetus, give birth to fully formed human young and provide their food for several months as they grow. Without women, the human animal, Homo sapiens, would become extinct.