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The Race Of Women During The Mongol Empire

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Non-elite women, specialized in their fields, were honored by men for their contribution to the Mongol Empire. Alan Gho’a, the official Mongol accountant held a prominent “position in an otherwise exclusively male line of descent [which] point[ed] up the high status of women in Mongolian society and anticipate[d] the crucial role [women] later were to play in the emergence and consolidation of the empire” (Fairbank, Franke, and Twitchett 330). In addition, Sorqoqtani was praised for her “intelligence and political acumen” by Bar Hebraeus, a male physician, who claimed “‘[i]f I were to see among the race of women another who is so remarkable a woman as this, I would say that the race of women is superior to the race of men’” (Hong 377). …show more content…

Genghis Khan’s “daughter led the final assault on the […] Nishapur” (Man 26), and “princesses of the khan’s family […] [took] part in general assembly,” (Zhao 57) participating in making important strategic military or political decisions (Zhao 56). In addition, women gained more independence as they acted as heads of the household in times of war when their husbands were fighting, which made them head of household management, which “allowed them to gain high status in family life,” as women began to control men because they had to rely on them for supplies and survival (Zhao 56). Overall women were “generally accorded […] higher status and more rights” as they played such vital economic and military roles “that it was imperative to grant them substantial authority (Rossabi, “From Yuan 365). This shows how average women experienced higher status during the Yuan Empire as they became more authoritative in private within families, and became more independent and involved in warfare, and in supporting the family and her husband.
In addition, the influence of the non-Chinese Mongols influenced changes in traditional Chinese law and cultural practices. The rule of the Mongols was incredibly significant in improving the rights of women as they expanded “protective legislation for women” (Rossabi, “From Yuan” 331). The Mongol Emperors, perhaps under the influence of their wives, whom

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