The Sex War SIR,- -Claire Rayner complains that I have
allowed her to have the last word. I did so because I thought the controversy for what it was worth was settled. In any case it is the prerogative of women to have the last word just as it is their prerogative to change their minds; and, of course, to Change the subject of the controversy. She has invited me to convince her that it is 'right and just that women be treated in our society as of smaller worth than men.' This is, not my opinion; nor have I ever expressed it. My phrase 'fields which are alien to them' 'seems to her to justify, her extraordinary view that I be- lieve women are of 'smaller worth than men.' I think it-is as hard for a woman to'indulge success- fully in controversy as it would he for a man to bear a child. And don't let her say,that that is im- possible--both men and women have changed their sexes.
Finally, her earlier remark that she had forgotten that Elizabeth 1 was a dictator and the only way she could he one was to 'deny some aspect of her femininity'; would she say the same of the Empresses Theodora, Cleopatra and Catherine the Great, all of whom led very full sexual lives while being very firm pliers without the consent of their peoples? RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL Stour, East Bergholt, Suffolk
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