Women’s Status in Ancient China
Elane Yap Theng Yu
HELP University

Outline I. Introduction A. Opener: B. Thesis Statement: Women in Ancient China led a tough life as they faced discrimination in each and every day, no matter if it is in their roles in family, education, occupation and their dressing and makeup, thus these led to the revolution of some women.

II. The ancient China society practiced the beliefs that men are dominant to women. A. Theory of Yin-Yang 1. low position of women compared to men 2. less useful and valuable than men

III. Women in ancient were forced to make themselves to become beautiful. A. Foot binding 1. forced to bind since young 2. undergone painful and debilitating process 3. displaying of status and symbol of beauty

IV. Women’s stages in their family were seen to be weak. A. Subject to their fathers 1. had no right to voice out B. Servant to their husbands 1. bear a male offspring to their husbands C. Not allowed to remarry after husband died 1. death penalty

V. Women were only allowed to get limited education and job opportunities. A. Education 1. domestic duties 2. literatures that taught them the ways of complying with men B. Job 1. centered on the home 2. help their husbands

VI. Conclusion:

Women’s Status in Ancient China
China, which is located in East Asia, has one of the oldest civilizations, dating back to about 5000 years ago. The Chinese people have been contributing a lot in developing technologies and advancing the knowledge and philosophy of mankind throughout these thousands years of history. Regardless of its technologies advances and intelligence, Chinese society was far from perfect as the ancient society was narrow-minded and practiced the notion that illustrates an obvious distinction between men and women. The ancient Chinese women lived tough and oppressed lives as they faced discriminations in their everyday lives regardless of it being in their roles as family members, education, occupation, and their appearance; the reason being that they were bounded by tradition and obedience.
The ancient Chinese society practiced the belief that men are more dominant than women. They followed the theory of Yin-Yang, which is the resource of the traditional Chinese gender concept. Chen (n.d.) indicated that the interaction of Yin-Yang existed in the division of work and characteristic. He also explained that in respect for the former, men mainly worked outside and women did housework, whereas for the latter, women were seen to hold the quality of weakness, which means they were relatively weaker than men. Next, according to Renard (2002), in the human order, the position of women should be inferior and low like the earth; however, men should be initiative and strong like Heaven. Thus, the fact that the ancient Chinese society hold the belief that women were less useful and valuable compared to men is clearly displayed in the examples above.
Also, Li (1992) found that the society of ancient China used to follow the following poem:
When a son is born,
Let him sleep in the bed,
Clothe him with fine dress,
And give him jades to play with.
How lordly his cry is!
May he grow up to wear crimson
And be the lord of the clan and the tribe!
When a daughter is born,
Let her sleep on the ground,
Wrap her in common wrappings,
And give her broken tiles for her playthings.
May she have no faults, nor merits of her own;
May she well attend to food and wine,
And bring no discredit to her parents! (p.4)
It is obvious that the poem presented above is bias towards the men in ancient China society. Li (1992) explained that, lying a baby girl below the bed signified that she was low and considered as a second class human whereas giving her a piece of broken pottery meant that she should practice labour in her entire life. It is proven that giving birth to a girl was never a thing to be joyous about in the ancient Chinese civilization as female were not seen equals to male. To summarize, since the belief that “women were inferior to men” was being practiced, women were treated with no respect and had faced lots of challenges and difficulties in ancient Chinese.
Furthermore, one of the discriminations faced by women in ancient Chinese was that they were forced to make themselves to become beautiful. They had no right to choose how they appear whether privately or publicly. One of the techniques, which was the most painful and debilitating technique was to bind their foot. According to Brady (2013), the foot binding process began when girls were at the age between four and seven years old, which is before the arch of the foot had developed. Their feet would have to be soaked in a warm mixture of herbs and animal blood, and next their toe nails were clipped. Consequently, this will lead their foot bones to remain broken for years and would start to heal when the girls grew older. When women were getting older, they were not able to walk unassisted; therefore, they were more likely to fall and break their other bones.
However, ancient China society believed that binding women’s foot was a symbol of beauty and a displaying of status. Jackson (2007) stated that foot binding would turn them into 'three-inch golden lotuses' which is known as “lily feet” and this would then help them to marry into a wealthy family. Foot binding became more popular over the following dynasties as it was associated with beauty and wealthy. Also, Thompson (2005) claimed that, women long ago learned that a girl’s best friends are high heels but not diamonds. This saying clearly implies the importance for a woman to bind her foot in ancient China. Briefly, ancient China society concerned more about the appearance of women instead of their health.
Besides, women’s stages in their family were seen to be weak. They had no independent status and personal dignity. Chen (n.d.) found that “The key of women’s status was humbleness, and the core of women’s role was obedience” (p. 147). Wolf, Witke, & Martin (1975) noted that as a result of Confucian influence, within the family, women were subject to the “three obediences”, which are their fathers, their husbands and their sons. Women were expected to subordinate their fathers before marriage, husbands during marriage and oldest son when widowed. Firstly, women’s marriages were arranged by their fathers, that is to say that; they were not allowed to choose their own husband. They had no right to voice out but to subject to their fathers. Eventually, this mostly led them to a loveless marriage. Secondly, during marriage, women had no freedom as they would have to subject to their husband. Renard (2002) stated that women did not have their own independent status and reputation but to share their husband’s one. Their greatest duty was to serve their husbands and family; in other word, they had to be servants to them.
Moreover, women were expected to bear male offspring to their family in order to continue their family name. Renard (2002) claimed that if no son was produced by the wife, the husband is legally obliged to marry one or more secondary wives in hope of acquiring a male heir. This statement clarified that women were have to prioritize the production of male heir to ensure their stage in their family. They should satisfy their husband by how many male children they give birth to and by how good they serve their family. Next, Wolf et al. (1975) indicated that, according to Confucian concepts of chastity, a women whose husband died was supposed to remain a widow throughout her life. Widows were not allowed to remarry. If they would have done so, they would be sentenced to death. In short, women held minimum to none opportunities and a say in what happened to them and they were also deprived of having a chance to have a say in their own life.
Besides, women in ancient China were only allowed to get limited education and occupation opportunities. The society in ancient China had a thought that, educating women was not worthy and women should work at home instead of working outside. Li (1992) found that instead of being educated in literature, women were forced to learn domestic duties like weaving, sewing and cleaning. Learning these domestic duties was a must for ancient Chinese women as they would have to apply them in their marriage life. However, some of them who were the lucky one were allowed to study literatures like “Nv Xun” and “Lie Nv Zhuan”. They were taught the ways of complying with men by reading these literatures. The education opportunities in ancient Chinese favored male students above female students. According to Ebrey (1993), the traditional education of Chinese women was not aiming to improve their ability, but to made them obey to men easily.
As for the job opportunities, women were also seen as unfit for the outdoor job. Women’s work was centered on the home as Renard (2002) claimed that women remained in home to serve the family which sometimes may brought as many as four generations in one household. They were expected to take up all the manual labour in home without any help. Tasks such as cleaning, looking after children and preparing food were the norm for the ancient Chinese women. Also, sewing, weaving and spinning, which were the domestic duties they learned since young, were their common occupations. On the other hand, some peasant women helped their husbands in their career; for instance, they worked in the fields with their husbands. Shortly, the unfair treatment of education and job opportunities towards women was obviously reflected in ancient China as they were have no chances on involving themselves and developing in the field of education and job.
In conclusion, women in ancient China experienced numerous limitations and social pressures, such as the practice of foot binding tradition, the three obediences that they subjected to, and the minimum chances of involving in education and career fields. Therefore, after living under the expectations of society, they lived oppressed and stressed lives as their lives were limited by the beliefs that “women were subjected to be lower and have a servitude attitude towards men”.

References
Brady, T. (2013, September 23). Meet the last of China's women to have her feet bound: 102-year-old subjected to ancient custom had her toes broken when she was just two-years-old. Mail Online. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2429992/Han-Qiaoni-102-woman-bound-feet-toes-broken-just-2.html
Chen, C. (n.d.). A historical review from pre- Qin dynasty to Han dynasty. The Ancient Origins of Chinese Traditional Female Gender Role, 34, 142-147.
Ebrey, P. B. (1993). The inner quarters: Marriage and the lives of Chinese women in the Sung period, Los Angeles, LA: University of California Press.
Jackson, R. (2007). The Chinese foot-binding syndrome. International Journal of Dermatology, 29(5), 322-328.
Li, Y. M. (1992). Chinese women through Chinese eyes. New York, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
Renard, J. (2002). 101 questions and answers on Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto. New Jersey: Paulist Press.
Thompson, A.L. (2005). The unshod child into womanhood: Forefoot morphology in two populations. The Foot, 15(1), 22. doi: 10.1080/19424280903386411
Wolf, M., Witke, R., & Martin, E. (1975). Women in Chinese society. Los Angeles, LA: Stanford University Press.