Sexual equality is a hot topic nowadays. Men and women are held to be identical in all respects; or if not, they should be. Bertold Brecht remarked, of the implacable social engineering of the old East German regime: “Such a government should dissolve the people, and appoint another.” This idealistic aim, says Daedalus, is now feasible, at least in the sexual sphere.

The ‘default setting’ of a fetus is female. If a male Y chromosome is present, however, it stimulates the production of fetal testosterone, which sets development along the male path. In particular, this hormone powerfully influences the growing brain. Thus, pregnant women with toxaemia used to be given doses of testosterone, to counter the condition. The girls born to such women often behaved in male ways, being aggressive, unromantic, and with little interest in babies. Conversely, pregnant women treated with supplementary oestrogens often give birth to boys whose later behaviour is typically feminine. They are often shy, or lack a proper obsession with sport or technology. Much depends on the timing and the dose of the modifying hormone.

So, says Daedalus, the way seems open to true sexual equality. Provided that the sex of the growing fetus can be determined early enough, the mother could be put on a well-judged programme of hormone treatment designed to cancel the mental sexual bias of the fetus without affecting its genital development. Feminist mothers will rush to demand the treatment. The next generation will no longer show the deplorable mental differences that oppose a just and equal society. Everyone, male or female, will be moderately aggressive, moderately sexual, moderately interested in both babies and technology, and capable of competing interchangeably in all walks of life.

The moral climate of society will improve dramatically. The demand for sex from men will at last be equalled by that from women, so prostitution will vanish. The rival art-forms of pornography and romantic fiction will merge into an intriguing new unisex romantic pornography. The long, traumatic sexual odyssey of so many adolescents will also be eliminated, for both sexes will share the same outlook and aspirations. Marriage and the family will benefit enormously from this new harmony. And the old line, “My wife (or husband) doesn't understand me”, will be totally discredited.