Role of Chinese Women in China
The role of Chinese women in China has continued to evolve over the centuries. In China, the role of Chinese women also varies by location and social status. Wealthy, poor, rural and urban Chinese women may have slightly different roles in their communities.
1. Status
o In the past, Chinese women in China had a very low social status. Society expected Chinese women to be obedient to their husbands and male relatives.
Marriage
o Parents in China would customarily arrange marriages for their daughters. After the wedding, a Chinese woman in China would move into the household of her husband's family.
Education/Economics
o Many Chinese women in China remained at an economic disadvantage. Few women received an education and most worked in the home. Those who worked outside the home received lower wages than men.
Improvements
o Gender equality in China has increased tremendously. Today, Chinese women in China are not considered subordinate to men. They can choose their own husbands, get a divorce and attend college.
Advocacy
o Although the role of Chinese women in China has improved, work is still needed. Individuals are advocating to increase the representation of women in government and to increase their economic empowerment.
ziaThe Culture of Chinese Women
Chinese women now play a more important role in society.
Women's current role and position in Chinese culture is substantially different from that of women in pre-Communist China. Their situation is evolving and today they occupy prominent positions in Chinese society.
1. Ancient China
o In ancient Chinese culture women were largely confined to the home and could not work outside of it. With sons valued more than daughters, a man could divorce his wife if she did not produce male heirs. Women were subordinate to their father, brother, husband and sons. Overall, women in China before the 1900s were treated as slaves.
Communist China
o Women's roles underwent a major change with the establishment of a Communist state. Mao Zedong used the Cultural Revolution to create greater gender equality and establish policies removing women's oppression. For example, women now had access to formal education. Mao also demanded that women be given equal work opportunities.
Modern China
o Chinese women enjoy more freedom than ever, and many are in prominent government and business positions. Chinese men now have more respect for women and share household tasks with them. However, there is an equality gap between women in rural China and those living in cities, with those in the countryside having fewer advantages.
Women in China: Past and the Present
MODERN CHINESE SOCIETY AND THE FAMILY [Compton's]
Traditionally the family has been the most important unit of society, and this is still true. The family is also an important economic unit. In rural areas, where about 74 percent of China's people live, the traditional family consisted of the head of the household, his sons, and their wives and children, often living under one roof. Common surnames gave families membership in a clan. In some villages all families had the same surname, or four or five surname clans might account for most of the villagers.
Land, the main form of wealth in traditional China, was divided equally among all the landowner's surviving sons when he died. Thus, as China's population grew, the landholdings became smaller and smaller, and many people were very poor. In the first half of the 20th century the family as a social unit came under severe stress. Rural conditions were bad, income was low, and food was often scarce. Health care was poor or nonexistent for most peasants, and mortality rates were high. Civil unrest, warfare, and foreign invasions added to the difficulties.
After the Communist revolution in 1949 rural conditions stabilized. Private ownership of land was abolished, but each peasant family was given a small plot to farm. Health care improved. The fluctuations in the food supply leveled off and life expectancy increased. Living conditions for the average peasant are generally better today than they were in 1949, and there are opportunities for at least some education. All these things have meant a considerable improvement in the quality of life and greater security for the family as a social unit.
Today some rural families are still likely to have three generations under one roof. Despite state ownership of the land, they once again serve as basic production units. The Production Responsibility System, initiated in 1978, permits individual families to contract with their local production team or brigade to lease land for farming. Production quotas are also contracted. Whatever is left after taxes are paid and quotas are met belongs to the family. If a family works hard, it can meet its contract quotas and also produce a surplus for consumption or sale. This program was designed to stimulate production, but one result has been to strengthen the role of the traditional family as a consuming and pr
oducing unit.
Urban family life is different from that in rural areas. In the cities, families usually are smaller, often composed only of parents and children. Since both parents work, the children are left in day-care centers or schools. Sometimes couples are split up if their work units are not close together, and husband and wife may see each other only rarely. Despite such problems, family life for most people in the cities is stable, and family ties continue to play a major role in the lives of both parents and children.