AP World History: Women and Gender Status

8000-600: nomadic women

-relatively high status b/c of food gathering responsibilities
-not many children b/c of lifestyle

8000-600: early settled, agricultural communities

settled life, surplus of food led to larger # or children. women more tied to home, children, household tasks
-men concerned about paternity before male heir to land-->beginnings of patriarchy

8000-600: Egyptian women

-treated w/ more respect, legal rights, social freedoms than other cultures of this time period

Nubia (Kush)

matrilineal
more freedoms like in Egypt

8000-600: classic Greeks and Romans

-tight family structure with husband/father in control
-women kept at home with little involvement in public/political life though they did serve as priestesses
-some active in business and were landowners

8000-600: Early Christianity

-lived in small communal groups
-sharing food and income
-women sometimes took turns leading religious services

8000-600: Han China Women

-three submissions: parents, husband, then son
-arranged marriages
-lived w/ husband's family
-rigid patriarchy
-Confucianism adopted during this time

600-1450: Pre-islamic arab women

-important economic roles in clan life, but performed drudge labor
-no veils, no seclusion
-multiple marriage partners for both sexes
-males honored as warriors so they were favored for property, inheritance, and divorce

600-1450: early islamic women in Umayyad Caliphate

-Muhammad strengthens women's legal inheritance and divorce rights
-women only had one husband
-men usually had four wives whom he treated equally
-adultery equally denounced for both genders
-more favorable status of women

600-1450: Abbasid Caliphate

-men said that women had incurable lust so they must be segregated, harems, veiling, male dominance, concubines
-poor women economically active
-rich women stayed at home

600-1450: Sudanic (grasslands) Africa (Ghana and Mali)

-Muslim women in urban areas not secluded or veiled
-participate in public life and private discussions
-singers, dancers
-relative freedom of action and clothing shocked Ibn battuta
-ME demanded these women as concubines/slaves

600-1450: Medieval European Women

-more urban and complex cultre led to male dominance
-males reinterpret Bible to placerestrictions on women

600-1450: Aztec Women

-skill in weaving was esteemed
-spent a lot of time grinding maize by hand
-subordinate to males in political and social life

600-1450: Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1127)

-footbinding of upperclass women in later half of this period
-patriarchy of Ne-Confucianism kept women from education, civil service, inheritance, and other rights

600-1450: Heian and Kamakura Japan

-women at court expected to be as cultured as men, but their lives were spent mostly in isolation studying Buddhism and writing
-other women became appendages of warrior husbands or fathers
-lost ritual roles and were replaced in the the theater by men.

600-1450: Vietnam

-women active in the community, political life, and wet rice farming
-most freedom and influence of any women of this time period
-Trung sisters led the first century CE revolt against Han invaders-->national heroes

600-1450: Mongol (Later Yuan) Dynasty

-women had greater freedom of movement, rights to property, and other opportunities-->like other nomadic cultures
-some hunted and went to war
-refused to adopt footbinding when in control of china

600-1450: India (outside mughal empire) regional hindu kingdoms

-patriarchy
-sati
-child marriages
-wedding dowries: meant that females were a burdan to the families which led to occasional infantcide

600-1450: Europe

-marriage among non-elites led to smaller and nuclear families
-less harsh discipline of children, more affection btw family members
-women were a common target of witchcraft hysteria

600-1450: Latin America

-sexual exploitation of indigenous and African women by European male settlers
-small amount of Euro women led to many ethnic intermarriages
-women under male authority
-upperclass women confined to housework
-lower class women active in many economic activities

600-1450: Ottomon and Safavid

-women subordinate to fathers and husbands
-elite women had few opportunities for expression outside of home
-harems, veiling, concubines continue

600-1450: Mughal india under Akbar

-short lived attempts to outlaw sati
-discouraged arranged and child marriages
-special market days where women (both hindu and muslim) could come out of homes

600-1450: India after Akbar

-sati increases among upper class
-increased arranged/child marriages, seclusion of all women
-wedding dowries-->burden on poor families-->female infanticide

600-1450: African Women

-desired for sexual and domestic employment in Ottoman Empire
-not as valuable for slavery in W hemisphere
- some cultures were matrilineal

600-1450: Ming China

-confined to home, status based on amount of male children
-some independence as courtesans and entertainers
-some footbinding in upper class
-some female infanticide

1750-1914: Western Europe

-lower class women were paid 1/3 men's wages in mines and factories
-public education increases for women
-elite women influence Enlightenment as writers
-organized salons
-active in revolutions
-slavery abolitionism
-early socialism
-beginning of women's suffrage movements

1750-1914: Qing China/Manchus (1644-1911)

-working class women work w/ husband in business or fields
-confucianist submission, caring for home and family, other work
-cannot inherit or own property
-footbinding in upper classes
-some fight in women's brigades. Taiping rebellionand 1911 revolution
-some educational opportunities at Christian missionary schools
-some female infanticide

1750-1914: Meiji Japan (1868-1918)

-women from home textile production to industrialized silk/cotton mills
-poorly paid single women in grim working conditions.
-laws reinforced confucian patriarchy, restrictions of political rights
-public education encourages girls to be "good wives, wise mothers"

1750-1914: Latin America

-participated in 1820s independence movements, but no resulting political rights
-women owned and operated textile, craft, and food businesses, spin, weave, garden to assist family income
-culture of machismo influenced rigid standards of female behavior
-primary role as wives and mothers reinforced by catholocism

1750-1914: Sub-saharan Africa

-participate in resistance to colonial rule
-performed 85% of all work
-men control cattle and livestock
-women aren't threatened by slave trade until late 1800s
-men had to migrate away to find work--> bad for family unit
-islamic expansion influenced women's roles and rights
-some educational opportunities at christian missionary schools

1914-present: Western Euro and US

-worked in WWI industries, lost jobs after war
-won voting rights
-prosperity and falling birth rates created more freedoms
-1950s: increased educational opportunities, employment as teachers scretatries clerks and nurses
-1960s: later feminist movement-access to birth control, rapidly decreasing birthrates, population declined in some countries (but not necessarily unhealthily)

1914-present: Soviet Union

-rights often meant hard physical labor job for women, then apartment work and children rearing w/ little help from husbands
-focus on industrialization and military build-up, few consumer goods, including birthcontrol...about 7 abortions average for married women

1914-present: Japan

-US occupation, education for women, voting, and other legal rights
-traditional culture/patriarchy limited female options in reality
-university grads often low pay/status "office ladies" until marriage
-focus on household tasks and child rearing, husband worked long hours, little recreational and leisure time activities w/ husband or father -->fewer women marry creating a rapidly falling birth rate

1914-present: Latin America

-reformers feared that women tied to the catholic church might become a conservative political force so the role of women slowly changed
-activist feminist movement and voting rights did not end male prejudice against equal partition of women in political life
-by 1980s women were closest to western female patterns than other non western world religions

1914-present: Women in African and South Asian nationalist movements

-Euro schools in peripheries created educated, articulate and politically active women
-full equality after independence not yet reached
-super poor education for women
-poor sanitation, lack of food, high infant and maternity death rates
-male oriented culture
-tradition and religious fundamentalism lowered female equality of life and btw genders

1914-present: communist china

-many worked in new occupations
-received legal equality to men after 1949 revolution
-some freedom in choosing marriage partners but they were expected to work outside of the home
-Mao zedong committed to liberation of women-"women hold up half the sky"
-gov efforts to lower pop. by limiting amount of children to one (mostly in urban areas) or two children
-many aborted female children so they could have males to carry on the family name, perform family rituals, and take care of the elderly parents
- severe shortage of young marriageable women

1914-present: India

-British outlawed Sati and female infanticide
-less education and health care for girls, abortion of female babies, arranged marriages, dowries, dowry deaths continue in rural areas
-severe shortage of young marriageable women
-quality of life for females in urban areas improved