Ancient China Patriarchy Analysis

Confucian ideas highlight the need to have a heir, thus the Emperor need to be sexually active, which explains the very large number of women in the inner court. However, according to Confucian ideals, the Emperor was not supposed to retain any pleasure from this encounters. therefore leading to a paradox hard to overcome by the Emperor and even harder to enforce by the outer court officials depute their moral concerns. Song women were also granted for the first time considerable legal rights. In fact, Song Dynasty is seen as a high point for women property point in China, further challenging Confucian traditional patrilinality.

Women were viewed as inferior in both societies. Ban Zhao’s Lessons for Women defined the role of women in Han China with dictated customs and traditions. Confucius stated that a women was submitted to the will of a man all her life. Women didn’t own property nor were they educated. The Gupta Empire also believed that women were subject to a man for their entire lives.

During the feminist movement beginning in the late 1700’s many women took stance to stand up for women’s rights that as women they weren’t getting and therefore caused this movement to carry on through present day. However, in literature during this time author’s would write books using women as props almost as men had dominance over women and women had to do everything that the men asked of them. "Women who had been told that they had it all—nice houses, lovely children, responsible husbands—were deadened by domesticity, she said, and they were too socially conditioned to recognize their own desperation" (Women’s movement). Women had once been told they had it all until the late 1700’s when men began to dominate over women and control what

Using these words, the authors draw the line of distinction between the roles of “the saint” and “the whore” (200). Secondly, independent women in fairy tales were often associated with the concept of evil because they menaced the patriarchal order itself (203). No longer relying on men for emotional or economic support, these women were harder to control (203). However, back in the days when these tales were crafted, “most women had not been by tradition so fortunate as to enjoy the economic independence that would enable them to run their lives as wished” (203). As a result, their roles in society were entirely defined by their relationships with men (207).

Not only were they expected to reside in the home but women were also tied down through marriage with the expectation of blindly following their husband without challenging their authority. Kate Chopin’s short story, “Story of an Hour”, uncovers the chilling truth of how women were perceived to have longed and enjoyed marriage during the 18th and 19th century when in actuality many felt confined, trapped and imprisoned due to what society and men wanted them to do. The story reveals that the impending pressures of having to become a good wife and mother along with patriarchal societal oppression oftentimes pressures a woman into experiencing a psychological breakdown that can result in fatal consequences. Chopin begins the story with the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, being told

Woolf describes the “Angel in the House”, “if there was a draught she sat in it... she never had a mind or a wish or her own.” (Woolf). Woolf demonstrates how the “Angel in the House” represents the stereotypes that society oppresses women with. The ideal woman was seen as someone who had to be selfless without any imagination of her own.

She intentionally created a mysterious sort of persona as she kept her personal life away from the public. Nevertheless, from behind the guise of her numerous heroines, she managed to offer thousands of women the advice they needed to survive the prevailing issues of the eighteenth century.

Cultural differences are prevalent in both of Amy Tan’s novels, The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God’s Wife. The mother’s face gender inequality based upon living in a patriarchal society in China, where they are oppressed with silence by their dominating husbands. Nevertheless, their daughters live in American, where they have an opportunity of freedom, have not faced constrainment in their lifestyles as their mother’s have. The independent girls have their own authority and mindset, being raised in western societies. Therefore, it is quite difficult for the mother’s and daughter’s to have a sense mutual understanding.

Women through history struggled to fit in a life were men have the most important roles and the whole world in their hands. The battle for a woman to be seen as a person in her own privilege, characterized her own terms, by her own judgment and achievements, wishing the same open doors as men have and practice. There is no role for women in the society back then even in marriage, she can’t choose whom to marry, and basically women role is forgotten in the society at the Restoration era. So in this research paper I will discuss one of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s poem Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to Her Husband. In which a woman blamed for infidelity lashes out against her glaringly double-crossing spouse, against the patriarchal lawful framework that permits

Men and women began to study the classical works of art of classical civilizations. Moreover, gender roles became weaker as some women became scholars and authors. For example, Christine de Pizan became a female author of two books and wrote about women’s education and the reason why women should be educated. In her book, The Book of the City of Ladies, she writes that men who think that women should not be educated are wrong and that not all of the men 's opinions are logical and supported by sense. However, during the Medieval Era, women took care of household duties and did not leave the house frequently.

Throughout Chinese history before the Tang and Song dynasties, the daily lives of women and issues from their perspective have not been adequately recorded, due to a male dominated society. However, from the Tang to the Song dynasty, visual and material sources appear which further explains the status of women in society, cultural values, but most importantly, examples of acts of courage, selflessness, and strength. The discussion of women starting with the Tang dynasty is especially important since this is the start of open-mindedness and liberal ideas resulting in women in politics, a woman as empress, and even freedom of expression through poetry and art. However, once shifting to the Song dynasty, the status of women declined further in

Women were one of the most oppressed groups in the Soviet and China. As described in Women, the state and Revolution, “Women’s oppression was rooted in motherhood” (Goldmen, 32). Being a mother at that time meant being confined to the house with the expectations of fulfilling household duties such as; making sure the house was in order, the children were taken care of, and the husband was satisfied. Women didn’t have much rights or any say at all making communism the glimmer of hope that women desired.

Lastly, there is a high chance that the Buddha’s rejection was because he was not sure how to organize a community of nuns. In the early days, there were no monastic buildings to sleep in and monks wore old robes, which might be a struggle for women (16). Therefore, these shows that the Buddha’s “hesitation” is not due the spiritual ability of women, but his desire to maintain Buddhism ideology and protect women once they enter the monastic life. In fact, he proclaimed that, “And be it women, be it men for whom such chariot doth wait, by that same car into Nibbana 's presence shall they come” (Barua, 61). This suggests that the Buddha actually value women because not only he did not doubt their capability to achieve Nirvana, which is the spiritual goal of Buddhism, but he wants to make sure that they are protected in the monastic community.

Religions of the Han and Yuan Dynasties The Religion of the Han and Yuan Dynasties were Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. The religions of these dynasties affected the government and society greatly. During the Han Dynasty the major religion was Confucianism. Buddhism and Daoism were the main religions in the Yuan Dynasty. Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism all affected the Chinese government.

4. External Pressures on the late Ming, Early Qing: Mongols and Manchus: This was an issue because the pressure of the Mongols and the invasion by the Manchus led to the end of the Ming Empire. The late Ming Empire was under pressure in the North from the Manchus and the Mongols. In the late 1500s, large numbers of Mongols were unified by their devotion to the Dalai Lama. A military leader named Galdan restored Mongolia as a military power around 1600.