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Culture of the Chinese Women

China is one of the nations in East Asia that has a wealth of history on the roles of women in the society and it offers a good platform to see the dynamic change in the roles of women from traditional China to the present day. In one of the books written by a historian by the name Pan Chao, he said: “Let a woman modestly yield to others. Let her respect others. Let her put others first, herself last. If she does something that is considered good, she should keep silent and not mention it. If she does something that is considered bad, let her not deny it. Let her bare disgrace and let her endure when others speak evil or do evil to her…always let her seem to tremble and fear” (Kazuko, and Joshua 78). This audacious statement was put together by a respected man in ancient China whose opinion mattered in the courts of law and exerted great influence on the judge’s decision and judgment served to women. This is a brief peak into the setting of China about 2000 years ago.

In ancient China, the girl child was always treated with contempt and referred to with disappointment by the men who would tower over them as though they were gods to be served and satisfied by the women. The women were more often than not looked upon as concubines and no woman would claim right, whether legally or morally to be the sole wife of one man. The men had every right to take to themselves as many women as he would to be his multiple wives. The married women would also fall in a hierarchy based on simple factors as, the maid who was most favored by the master would come top of the list. Other bases would be the order in which they were married. To say that women in Chinese history were treated as animals would almost be an understatement since some of the practices were bordering evil. For example, one of the most common practices in ancient China was that of crippling women which started from their childhood where their feet would be bound (Greenhalgh 56). The arch of each foot would be deliberately broken and the foot tied to prevent it from growing. This would latter lead to a painful hobbling kind of motion for the women and their mobility would be limited to household chores.

In the process of time, wealthy households and the non-aristocratic Chinese could not afford to have their women unable to work due to the crippling so they opted to keep them as slaves. They did jobs such as spinning clothes, processing tea and other labour intensive tasks in the home. During these severe times of inequality, there were individuals who arose to show that women were not as useless as deemed and that they could exert a certain degree of influence. For example, in ancient history, the heir to the Chinese throne was taken by a young boy whose mother; ‘Empress Dowager’ was the true ruler (Greenhalgh 71). Another interesting area to note as the changes in tradition changed overtime, the role of arranging marriages was handed to an aunt or older female relatives. They decided which families would be allied by marriage and who would pay the dowry to whom. In some regions of ancient China an interesting tradition was developed of having groups of 6 to 7 women who would be “sworn-sisters” and they would even develop their language and system of writing to help them communicate amongst themselves.

On the onset of the 19th century, there was an outcry of discontentment amongst the Chinese people regarding the roles of the women. However, it was not until the short lived Chinese republic that there was significant progress in the fight for women rights. The rise of communists under the Mao caused a shift in the long held beliefs and traditions that degraded the Chinese people and they were willing to die for their beliefs and one of their goals was to erase the inequality between the men and women once and for all. In these times women worked outside their home, were educated and involved themselves in political matters (Kazuko, and Joshua 81). With the death of Mao the nation moved towards a state capitalism economy. The fact that there has been an increasing influence on consumerism and the increased levels of technological advancement has made the western cultures to rub up on the eastern cultures and women have equal rights with men and it is highly improbable that the traditional values and cultures against women will find root in China ever (Cecilia 71).

The role of women in the society and the economy at large cannot be underestimated. Women, like the men play a critical role in the society covering from economic to cultural and biological. As dictated by the society, women and men are expected to live in accordance with the societal laws and norms or social values that act as the guiding principles for the spirit of togetherness and communism. Women are perceived as weaker creators with little and insignificance influence in the social and economic development of any country. Besides, women are often engaged in unproductive and non-income generating activities. This has served as the barrier point that has obstructed these women from exploring their potentials for the betterment of the living standards of the entire generation. For a long time, the Chinese women too were oppressed by the ‘self-claimed superior sex’ (Greenhalgh 99). Through such oppression and discrimination, the Chinese women had no ability to realize their potentials and significantly contribute to the economic growth and development.

However, Chinese women, unlike the rest of the women (especially Africans), have broken the odds and the cultural barriers that restricted their position and contribution in the society. Owing to the difference in the gender ordination and roles in the Chinese culture, women had no opportunity to unleash their portfolio or potential for the gain of the entire Chinese community. These differences in Chinese culture with respect to gender prompted women to go out of the way thereby becoming more substantive that the male counterpart. Women are charged with the responsibility of caring for the entire family members and the community at large (Cecilia 78-9). In so providing, these women had no choice but to be very active and hard working. For this reason, most Chinese women become more productive and substantive at the expense of men who should be the bread winners. The other main reason why women became more productive than men is demographic factors. The population dominance of the female in China played a role in the development and growth of the female characters to take-up the responsibility of providing for their families (Kazuko, and Joshua 51-7).

The discrimination and inequality between men and women in the Chinese culture is attributed to the feminine nature of the Chinese culture. According to the Chinese culture and tradition, women are just but objects of slavery and exploitation. This act of discrimination against female characters starts at birth through the celebrations and birth parties. In this culture of the Chinese, a birth of a baby boy is valued and celebrated than the birth celebration for girls. The differences in the treatment of men and women in the society through inequality is evidence beyond the social spheres. It is noted that in the Chinese culture, women were charged with the responsibility of caring for the family and serving the needs and demands of the entire family while men were breadwinners by name (Cecilia 85). This limited their access to resources therefore, limited ability to growth and development. On the other hand, the inequality is between these characters is evidenced by the fact that women were meant to serve as slave. The slavery and the servitude nature of the male counterparts made these female characters weaker and of less value to the Chinese economy. Women therefore served as servants in the firms of their masters at zero or exploitative compensations. According to the Chinese culture, women unlike the men were not accorded the opportunity to access education and other academic professions. This in turn made them more vulnerable to male slavery as they lacked the technical and professional skills needed in the job market owing to the competitive nature of the labor market (Li, Yu-ning 67).

The inequality in the Chinese cultures is also evidenced by the issue of marriages and marriage rights. However, women have no right to choose their loved partners. They have no voice or say on who becomes their live partner. Ladies and the female characters are forced into marriages with their parents (particularly fathers) negotiating these marriage arrangements without the consent of the lady (Tao 39). In some incidences, parents exchange their girls as a way of maintaining social and economic status. This is an indication of lack of equality and freedom on personal life and choices. Although this inequality still exists in the twenty first century, the magnitude of such gender inequality and discrimination is minimal. Unlike in the conservative Chinese culture where women were more of objects to the male, the modern world has recognized the position and contribution of women. Lack of freedom for Chinese women is explained by the fact the single women are outlawed from living on their own in apartments. Instead, they are forced to reside with single mothers in the dormitories (Tao 45-6). On the extreme, even the learned few are not allowed by their husbands to participate in formal employment.

The “one child policy’ enacted by the Chinese government has worsen the position of women in the society. One unbelievable effect of this policy is the killing of girls. The policy restricted the number of births a woman would have. According to this policy, Chinese women were not allowed to have more than one child. However, given the cultural value for boys, women who had given birth to girls opted to kill their children in order to allow room for boys. Although the single-child policy was aimed at controlling the population growth rate of China, the effects of this policy have negatively impacted on Chinese communities and population (Li, Yu-ning 37). One of the major set-back of the single-child policy is the ethical and biological concerns. Through this policy, it has been reported that there has been a significance increase in the case of selected-abortion. Abandonment of infants of female sex and sex-selective induced abortions in the favor of boys is one of the leading impacts of this policy in China. Such acts are unethical and may have long-lasting implications on the demographic and biological statistics of China. The post-natal factors and cultural value for male children has resulted into unforeseen gender imbalance because of the rise in the adoption of modern family planning and other birth control mechanisms (Cecilia 101-3). Although it is acknowledged that overpopulation pose a great danger to the Chinese resources and economy, the state-restricted reproduction and toxic cultural preference for male as opposed to girls has resulted into gender imbalance with the males outnumbering females, deeply desired abortions, and children kidnapping leaving the affected families in pain and agony.

Works Cited

HYPERLINK “http://www.google.co.ke/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Cecilia+Nathansen+Milwertz%22” Cecilia N. Milwertz. Accepting Population Control: Urban Chinese Women and the One-child Family Policy. HYPERLINK “http://books.google.co.ke/url?client=ca-print-tandf_uk-routledge&format=googleprint&num=0&channel=BTB-ca-print-tandf_uk-routledge+BTB-ISBN:0700704574&q=http://www.routledge.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp%3Fsku%3D%26isbn%3D0700704574%26parent_id%3D%26pc%3D&usg=AFQjCNEiyuVGLLvdvT3gGCDNtEIW8cG4Hw&source=gbs_buy_r” Routledge. 1997. Print.

Greenhalgh, Susan. Just one child: science and policy in Deng’s China. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2008. Available online.

Li, Yu-ning. Chinese women through Chinese eyes. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. 2002. Print.

Ono, Kazuko, and Joshua A. Fogel. Chinese women in a century of revolution, 1850-1950. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press. 2009.

Tao, Jie. Holding up half the sky: Chinese women past, present, and future. New York: Feminist Press at the City Univ. of New York. 2004. Print.