The Secretary Chant

The issue of gender plays a significant role in “The Secretary Chant,” as the speaker identifies as a woman. Piercy draws attention to various body parts that might typically be isolated in the male gaze such as the hips, breasts, feet, navel, and mouth. The speaker uses these body parts as a way to explore issues of objectification, likening her body—and even her mind—to office supplies. Beyond the metaphor of body as office supply and what that implies, the poem’s office environment suggests expansion of women’s roles outside the home. While more progressive than a more traditional role such as homemaker, the secretarial and clerical office roles mentioned in the poem are historically more closely linked to women than men (who have long been associated with managerial roles, for instance).

Gender is further explored in the closing lines of the poem with an overt pregnancy metaphor. The final lines, “File me under W / because I wonce / was / a woman” (Lines 24-27), say something about the speaker ultimately being reduced to little more than a copied page to be stowed away.

Due to its historical context, gender as it is addressed within the poem can be defined as a more outdated binary understanding of the term versus the more expansive, fluid conceptions of gender in 2021.