What Women Face 

Dr Michaela Otis

In this context we’re living in

Women are irrelevant.

Vogue mag, front page,

But the news, we’re just victims in.

Not safe to walk the streets,

Erased from family trees,

Hidden from society,

No evidence or history.

Why are women faceless?

There’ll be no way to trace us

If we cannot embrace this:

Every woman’s a protagonist.

You may have tried,

But we cannot be replaced.

This is my place

And this is my face.

We’re living in an age

When the workplace doesn’t pay

An equal living wage

To women working the same

As a man in his suit and all.

That is just not suitable,

Completely unacceptable

When we’re putting in the same, or more.

At the front of US politics

A criminal misogynist,

With no appeal for atonement

Made way for his opponent.

For both her gender and race:

A token Brown female.

What world are we living in?

I cannot bare his disgrace.

And your science can’t help me

When I’m in for a medical.

The only science of the womb

Was to label us hysterical.

Motherhood’s a price to pay

To our bodies and energy,

But to deny us fair say and salary,

That cannot be allowed to be.

 

m.otis@imperial.ac.uk