Studied by 0 people
What were the 3 obediences women were subjected to?
To their father when young
To their husband when married
To their son in old age
What were the traditional attitudes towards women?
Women had a low status
Many were forced into an arranged marriage and expected to provide children
They were labourers to poor men and accessories to rich
Some women with wealthy husbands had to share their husbands with concubines
What was Mao’s view on marriage and women’s rights? What moved him?
Mao was an advocate of women’s rights long before he came to power. In 1919 he was moved by the suicide of Miss Zhao a young bride whose marriage had been arranged against her will. The bride slit her own throat on the way to the wedding ceremony and bled to death.
Mao published a number of articles in local newspapers arguing that the tragedy had been caused by the ‘rottenness of the marriage system’.
Why was Mao so intensely against arranged marriages?
Mao himself had been party to an arranged marriage against his will when he was 14. The woman was 7 years older than him and Mao resisted the marriage claiming he never lived with her or considered her his wife.
What was foot binding?
A girl would have her feet bound at age 6. Her toes were turned under her feet and held there by tightly wound bandages. This prevented her feet from growing normally and her bone structure would have become deformed.
What was seen as sexually appealing?
Small feet and a swaying gait.
What began in the 1880’s?
An anti-foot binding movement led largely by Christian Missionaries
When was foot binding officially banned?
1911 but it still continued despite this especially in rural areas and northern villages.
What ethnic group mainly practised foot binding?
The Han Chinese ethnic group
Why were baby girls not valued? How was a women’s sense of inferiority enforced from a young age?
A daughter would often be married out of the family in her early teens and forced to submit to her new husband’s authority. Thus she would be lost to the family just when she might have become economically productive.
What practice increased the economic loss of having a daughter?
Giving away a dowry with the bride for the benefit of the bridegroom’s family.
How did people escape the burden of having a girl?
Infanticide
How were married women treated by their husbands?
Having paid for marriage many husbands treated their wives as private property and expected them to carry out domestic work with a subservient attitude.
Husbands objected to women speaking out of turn or leaving the home and many were beaten.
Why did the death of a husband not provide relief for Chinese women?
Confucian ethics abhorred the remarriage of widows leaving them economically vulnerable.
What was the relationship like between mothers in law and wives?
The new bride must also be subservient to all other senior members of the family and most importantly the mother in law.
Confucian marriage was unlikely to provide emotional support so mothers-in-law often compensated for this by staying close to their son who would look after them in old age. They were often jealous and spiteful of their son’s wife and would give them unpleasant or backbreaking chores.
What were educational opportunities like for girls?
Girls were not sent to school because there was no incentive since they would be leaving home soon and the parents would experience no economic benefit from their education.
One survey of rural China in the 1930’s suggested that only 1% of females over the age of 7 had required a level of literacy to read a simple letter compared to 30% of males.
Note 
Flashcard (86)