The changing status of women Flashcards
What are the three obedience’s?
- to their father (when young)
- to their husband (when married)
- to their son (in old age)
What were the traditional views towards women?
Women held a low status within society, women were treated as property and society was very patriarchal due to the values of Confucius.
What was foot binding?
In Qing China, women from the age of 6 would have their feet bound with bandages that would be tightened weekly to prevent their feet from growing normally and creating a deformed bone structure.
The small feet and swaying gait it produced was supposed to be beautiful and sexually appealing.
The practice was banned in 1911, but carried on in a de facto sense in northern villages as it was engraved into the culture.
What was the 1950 marriage law?
In fairness to Mao, he was dedicated to improving women’s rights and the NML meant that for the first time:
Women could legally seek divorce and hold property
The paying of dowries was forbidden, women also had to be 18 before they could marry
Marriages could not result from coercion, a free will was required.
During the 1940s, arranged marriages were at 30.6%, this dropped to 0.8 by 1966-76. Moreover, between 1946-49 and 1958-65 marriages were the bride was a child dropped from 18.6 to 2.4%.
What were some problems with the NML?
The law led to 1.4 million divorce petitions, with over 1.4 million being filed in 1953.
Many men were extremely angry they had been snubbed, they considered their brides as economic assets whom they had invested in and violence broke out when men tried to reclaim their wives to be.
How did collectivisation impact women’s lives?
In many parts of China, it was only the poorest women who worked in the fields but Mao insisted that it was necessary for Women to be sent to work in the fields if China was truly to become a great socialist country.
Mao claimed that allowing women to work would liberate them from domestic duties (due to the creation of kindergartens and mess halls), allowing them a chance at equal pay.
In reality, this led to the worsening of QOL as although now more women worked, they now had the double burden of domestic life.
What impact did the kindergartens have on the role and status of women?
Mothers became extremely distressed as for the most part, the kindergartens were in ramshackle buildings and were poorly staffed with either young or elderly women (i.e.: the only people left who couldn’t work).
Overwhelmed, the conditions were appalling - eating and sleeping on the floor, in Shanghai nappies were changed once a day and in Beijing 90% of children fell ill.
What was the problem with the work point system?
The system was rooted in the traditional notion of male superiority and therefore was reinforcing the notion of women’s inferiority
for a task where a man could earn up to 10 work points, a women could only earn 8 therefore acting as a disincentive for women to work
Describe the abuse and discrimination felt by women during the famine.
During times of famine, Cadres took advantage of their position. In one commune near Guangzhou, two party secretaries forced themselves upon 34 women
Another village secretary was investigated for taking liberties with every unworked married woman in the village, raping 27 of them.
Women were forced to sell themselves for sex to provide food, and the double burden of domestics and work was a huge responsibility. In Hunan, factory bosses forced women to work naked.
