Book 3: Equal Rites

In this most overtly political of Pratchett's works, a dying wizard mistakenly passes on his staff to a newborn girl, giving the Disc its first female wizard. As Esk grows, the magic starts to break out, and Granny Weatherwax, the local witch, takes the girl in for training to keep the power from running out of control.

Esk's childhood is set in a highly masculine environment, with seven older brothers and a blacksmith for a father. She knows she is at least the equal of her brothers, yet different, and she is teased for that; growing up as a loner, it is not surprising that she is attracted to the 'outsider' role of the witch.

Witch magic is feminine, dealing with understanding and persuasion: wizard magic is forceful, rapacious, often destructive when not properly directed. But the staff, which would guide and aid a wizard, confuses her; conferred with this most masculine of wizardly attributes, her magic is more powerful and more focused than anything in the homely Granny's repertoire. Perceiving this, Granny sets off to enrol her at the Unseen University, where she could learn to control her power properly.

It is clear from the outset that Esk has the potential to be a fully fledged wizard, as accomplished in magic as anyone at Unseen University, but the paternalistic sexism of that institution forbids women from enrolling. Even the Archchancellor, an open-minded wizard in his way, draws the line at allowing women to study wizardry.

It is useful to consider the struggle that follows in the context of the feminist movement of the late 70s and 80s, when the battle was raging thickest over the issue of equal treatment in professions and office environments. A particular cliche of this time was 'the key to the executive washroom', this being symbolic of the difference between the riffraff and the 'made men' of the company. Note how Esk's first entrance into the university involves cleaning, in the same way as the washroom would normally be cleaned by women. It never occurs to the wizards that she has a right to be there on equal terms, but it would be equally unthinkable to exclude her altogether.

In this book, Pratchett is subversively converting the whole august body of the Unseen University into a glorified 'executive washroom'; when the rain comes in and the river floods into the buildings, it is no more than what you'd expect when a washroom goes wrong. By excluding women from the washroom, the wizards condemn themselves to overflowing toilets (the Ankh) and rising water.

Mike Kew

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