The Role of Chinese Women
China, located in East Asia, is the third largest country by area and the largest country by population in the world. While China has one-fifth of the world’s total population, and it also has one of the earliest civilizations, dating back to some 5000 years ago. China is often distinguished for its technological advances and intelligence, but in the early 20th century, Chinese society was far from perfect. The women in China, lived a slow and difficult life, bound by tradition and obedience. Women had to bind their feet at birth or face adversity throughout their entire lives. Footbinding was a painful process that allowed women to be thought of as beautiful and a good future wife.
However, their
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Along with basic necessities such as bathing and eating a women served their families, cooked all the meals, cleaned all by themselves, and then worked the humid fields.5 It was nearly impossible for women to leave the family and make something out of themselves because they had very little education. They were required to leave when the boys were studying or asked to copy some words out of a book, when the tutor was free.6 Although they were given some money for groceries and other supplies, women could not spend cash freely, without a man’s permission.7 In addition, when their husbands brought home a concubine, a mistress or prostitute, there was no scene of jealously, unacceptance, or animosity. If these feelings were displayed, the women were shamed and this was a way for the male to request for a divorce.8 Death, a time for release and independence, was not such a time for women. There were two worlds. The Shadow World was female, with a negative essence, and all things motionless and deep. The Light World was male, with a positive essence, with all things strong and high. Women still endured agony while a man had nothing but happiness.9 Constrained by tradition and the family, a women complied to the rules of filial
The language and behavior that was used and expected outside of the house was expected to be very formal and extremely proper. The only social activities that were appropriate for women to attend were the ones that raised little or no approval from the men in the society. When women attended a public event with their husbands, they were expected to display obedience and respect to all of the people they confronted. Faithfulness and loyalty were expected to be given to all of the people that were important to the women throughout their lives.(“Women”) If the women were attending something in the town square, they were expected to have a stand where they sold fruits or breads, spun wool, and threaded silk for the other town members.
had to prepare and cook the food that the men obtained. Most of the time, they
A woman had a busy domestic life. A woman played the role of wife, mother, teacher and manager. She had to please her husband, bear and raise children, educate her children, and manage all daily household activities. In the home, the woman was the jack of all trades. Part of the role of the female was to take raw goods, and turn them into useful items, such as food, candles, and clothing. Women had to clean, butcher and prepare all game brought home to the family. A woman was a household factory. Many items in the home were created by women. All clothing was made by spinning, weaving and stitching. All cloth was washed by hand without the aid of any machines. Candles were made at home by weaving a wick and pouring hot wax into a mold. A woman had to be educated enough to teach her sons and daughters the skills of life. Women spent the majority of their time performing daily tasks, but still were able to have leisure activities such as painting, embroidery, and charity work. Women had very few legal rights. In the majority of colonies, women had no legal control over their lives. It was the consensus among society that
But this is not necessarily the way it was perceived by the Chinese. There were plenty of unhappy women. However, there were also men who thought that the private (inner) life of the family was more desirable than the public life which they faced.
There are many different types of parents with diverse parenting styles in the world. Some are efficient in their ways, while others struggle to wonder why their child did not turn out to be everything they hoped. The controversial topic of whether the parent knows what is best for their child hangs over the reader’s head in Amy Chua’s article.
Some aspects of the lifestyle ancient civilizations lived almost seem appalling or intolerable when compared to the very developed and carefully shaped the world inhabited today. One of these characteristics of previous societies that prove to be rather challenging to conceive in current times consists of the lack of rights, privileges, and equity women had. Society maintained this assumption of a man’s superiority up until the women’s rights movement of the early twentieth century; yet with the two sexes essentially equal in America today, imagining a restricted life as a female proves unfathomable. Looking back at the history of human kind, men almost always subdued women and treated them as property. When focusing on the first
The idea of feminism has not always been common. The term “feminism” wasn’t introduced until the 1970s. This shows how society didn’t allow anything that had to due with everyone being equal because of the standards that society constructed. In all the versions of Mulan, I think that Disney’s Mulan was the most strict on her having Ancient China’s role of being a woman. This would be having kids, helping clean around the house and not working for money, but working for her husband and kids. In Disney’s Mulan, her family is more hard on her to be a lady and for her to be the proper role of a women. This is because they went to a “matchmaker” to find her husband, and after saving everyone several times, she was still looked down upon because she was a woman.
As China faced new international pressures and the change to a communist society, gender relations transformed women from servants of men to full independent workers, who finally became soldiers of the communist state. In Jung Chang’s novel, Wild Swans, the three women – grandmother Yu-Fang, mother Bao-Qin and daughter Jung Chang – exemplify the expected gender roles of each generation. I will argue that Confucian society presented few economic opportunities for women to support
The women were to be passive and obedient to their husbands. Women were looked to be inferior to men, which lead to scientific sexism later. Not only were women physically inferior , they were intellectually inferior. They would obey their husbands no matter what. If the man asked her to do something she would do it.
Women's lives, roles, and statuses changed over various early world history eras and culture areas in many ways. Ancient Persia, Paleolithic, Athens, Mesopotamian and Roman eras were all different in very unique ways. The Paleolithic era treated women fairly and were treated equally. During the Neolithic era women were not treated fairly. She was the daughter of her father or the wife of her husband. Women rarely acted as individuals outside the context of their families. Those who did so were usually royalty or the wives of men who had power and status.” (oi.uchicago.edu, 2010) Athenian women were not treated fairly
Then in society, men were portrayed as “dominant figures” and women were the “nurturers”. Men not only filled the fatherly role but they also usually earned the “breadwinning”, went to work all day, and financially provided for the wives and
an independent lifestyle. It was very uncommon and shamed for women to fend for themselves,
I chose this topic because I view women as the backbone to the development or a nation, therefore the Chinese woman is paramount in one of the world’s great civilizations. The role of women in Chinese culture has changed over the years. When we consider the position that women held in ancient Chinese society we find that they have come a long way to be where they are today.
of a man. Women were able to hold political positions, possess land, and overall enjoy a
The first chapter is called Matter, and in this chapter she compares the bodies and agency of women to being “small”, “weak”, and a form of property. She explains that the universe is always subject to change and that there is always a cause and effect: similar to women; body changes, such as, breast, vulva, hair, and womb. In part two of the book she presents the notion of territory. She illustrates that men are able to be free and “women give up their secrets” and men are the first to know. Then she speaks about how women are expected to be loyal and patriarchy even though men screw them over at the end, which is the same action that men do to the earth- with possession, use and exploration.