Women 's Oppression Of Women

Women in ancient Rome and China were very different but quite similar as for as their treatment and roles were concerned. In both cultures they were under the protection of their fathers until they married. When they married they were to stay home and be wives, they were not formally educated and learned to manage their households. They were not allowed to disgrace their families in any way and were inferior to men from the moment of birth. Chinese women whether from a noble or a poor family could not escape oppression, but it was somewhat easier for the women from Noble families. (8) Comparing the women of Ancient Rome (750BC – AD500) and the women of China (350BC – AD600), from the roles they played in

In both the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire, women were seen as delicate figures and had limited political freedom. Women in Han China were required to be accompanied and led by a male, whether

These beliefs about the roles did not come out of nowhere. Confucius, the teacher of the religion of Confucianism, taught that women's roles were to look after the men in their families. Most did not question his teachings and continued to live with these “rules”. Not only the fact that they believed women were inferior to men and should stay at home, "people believed that women were both morally and intellectually inferior to men and thus needed men's control and guidance" (Tsai). While men were valued for their hard work and getting the money, women were disparaged because they “couldn’t live” without a man’s work.

Women have had changing roles in every society for centuries. Depending on the country, some women have had a harder time achieving equality. One of these countries is China. These women have faced such obstacles as foot binding to concubines. Until the twentieth century women were not considered equals in their society.

An example of gender inequality is shown in Document 5.1. It states that Confucius rarely talks about women and the reason being that he, Confucius, believes women have limited importance in Chinese society. Document 5.1 also talks about the work of Ban Zhou, a Chinese woman born into an elite family (which shows that China is a very patriarchal society in which Confucianism was abundant through China), and she was given a fine literary education. One of her works, Lessons for Women, talks about how the Chinese society was unfair to women and how the principles of Confucianism affects women's lives and their behavior. She refers to the marriage of man and woman to the Yin and Yang: Yin being the feminine side showing emotion, softness, and weakness and Yang being the masculine side showing power and rationality. She also writes about how childbirth for women was treated poorly. The child would be placed under the bed and given a potsherd, piece of a broken pot, to play with. The placing of the baby girl under the bed indicated that she was lowly and weak and the giving of the potsherd signified house labor and that house labor would be her first duty in the household.

In traditional Chinese culture, women were inferior to men. They were not allowed to make any decisions concerning their families. Their only purpose in life was to stay home and take care of the households. "A woman's duties are to cook the five grains, heat the wine, look after her parents-in-law, make clothes, and that's all! ...she must follow the `three submissions.' When she is young, she must submit to her parents. After her marriage, she must submit to her husband. When she is widowed, she must submit to her son. These are the rules of propriety." ("The Mother Of Mencius", p.34) That's the principle that was followed in traditional China. Some of the examples of this are discussed in this

When one compares villages like the Loushui village in soutwest China to the United States, one can notice cultural and societal differences between these places. While the United States is a patriarchal society, where the father is the head of the family, the villages are a matriarchal society The Mosuo women are believed to part of the last matriarchal society in China. Even as an agricultural society, women are out in the field working, but some stay inside to help with the children. Back in U. S’s agricultural times, the men did all the working while the women took care of the children and did all the household work. The Mosuo women do take care of the children in these societies, but the women’s family help as well. While in the United

In all societies, it was very common to have unequal treatment to men and women with the justification being the gender. This shaped the attitude and behavior of people. This commonly occurred to values, norms, customs, and laws in all societies. In the traditional Chinese society, it was very common for the bride to obey her parent-in-laws, do housework, and have a low social status within and outside of the household. Ancient China based its livelihood off of Confucian principles. Confucian principles act as a guide for the people to live and behave according to. Confucian principles included relationships such as the relationship of the emperor to his subjects, a father to a son, elder brother to younger brother, husband to wife, and friend to friend. Traditional China functions on these principles to guide the peoples’ lives. Women living in a Confucian society played a limited gender role. Confucian principles were instilled very deeply into the Chinese society; it was practice throughout Chinese history. Some practices of Confucianism are practiced to this day. Women did not share the same privileges as men in a traditional Confucian society because their role was to be the house wife that society shaped them into.

Even though we live in a modern world with many technological advancements, women oppression is still a plague around the world that seems to never stop or end in many different societies a woman is only accepted or considered good not when she speaks up or contribute to something that is against this but when she accepts this oppression and stay quit. In Woman at point zero, Nawal Al Saadawi has expressed her concern about women's oppression. In her piece of work, there were many attempts to raise awareness to this issue by giving an example of a woman’s life that was ruined by it. This issue should bring women together since they share the same problem and help each other and empower themselves in order to fight against this discrimination

With the concept of sexism being rife in earlier eras, it is expected that women were considered the inferior sex. Women who lived in the east, where being conservative and modest were traditional, accepted sexism as a social norm. Although men were already glorified around the world, even in the west, in those eras, sexism was prevalent in the east due to their more conventional approach in their way of life. A concrete example of this is the bizarre traditions of eastern women on beauty and marriage called foot binding.

Historically, men have been considered the only sex and women, the Other, and as a result, men’s views and opinions have created myths of what women in society are expected to conform to and exhibit. Many of the expectations developed are restrictive and oppressive to women. One such expectation that men have developed and perpetuated is that a woman exists to fulfill his sexual needs. Man is the superior being and his “ideal woman” is one that will unquestionably submit to his domination (Beauvoir 201). In addition, men’s domination over women, places women in a state of dependence. Women are largely reliant on men for economic necessities and security. However, women’s reliance on men, leaves them vulnerable to male’s oppression on them.

Early Chinese society placed a strong focus on the male members of the family. Sons were favored over daughters. Husbands were the masters of the home and were to be deferred to. Women were required to be submissive to the males, even their sons. All classes of women were expected to live by this way of life. There were various customs, which would be considered barbaric in today’s world, which women in China had to endure.

women were subordinate to men (Lee). Women were treated as menials and slaves. When they

Feminist perspective developed with the ideology that women face large amounts of inequalities in a patriarchal society. They aimed to address and rid the social world of this oppression of women by men. According to Bishop, (2015) “oppression occurs when one group of people use different forms of power to keep another group down in order to exploit them. The oppressor uses the power; the oppressed are exploited” (p. 133-134). Oppression must be by individual experience and not grouped into being the same for all. This includes understanding the original ideology of feminist theory being critiqued as only considering the experiences of middle class, white women. That black women, of lower class experienced oppression much different from the other women. Women are oppressed, thus has to be understood in a different construct that women are similar in some sources, experience of oppression but also experience oppression very differently from one individual to another. Feminist theories have further been expanded do its continuation throughout society and decades to encompass many more issues and arenas than just men and women relationships. Now it seeks to understand and address oppression based on culture, race, class, etc and not only for women but for all. Therefore, Bishop (2014) outlines five components that seem common to all forms of oppression and serve to maintain its presence in society.

Women go through distressing cruelty and oppression mostly because America is a patriarchal society, a male dominated society in which older men are in positions of power. Many unfortunate evils run loose and free in this society because either society does little to stop it, or at times, even encourages this destructive behavior. In the articles “Battering: Who’s Going to Stop It” and “Protecting Male Abusers and Punishing the Women Who Confront Them” we see one of these unfortunate evils and the damaging effect of it against women. Women are beaten helplessly without the aid of any of our patriarchal authorities in achieving justice, as if justice falls solely on the footsteps of men. In the articles “The Politics of Housework” and “The