Chinese Women in 20th century Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Chinese Women in 20th century - Essay Example Far above the ground population in China was among the foremost concern for the nation for the economy of the country was deteriorating to such an extent in the early twentieth century that the people had to greet each other with the word Chi le ma'' or Have you eaten'' (Faison). And for this downtrodden nature of the society, the selfish nature of the male was foremost explanation. But for the elucidation of such problem only the women were hold responsible and strained to afford solution by sterilizations and abortion without their own inclination. The family of their husband only controlled them. They were only the slave of the family without their any aspiration and were bound to remain in the house, and if anyone dared to come out, they were humiliated. The women were not provided with equal ranking in comparison to men in terms of work capacity and work culture. The gender inequality forces them to work on low wages and fewer respect for matching labor. Some of the unequal opportunities to men were even not tolerable in terms of social and moral responsibility also. The male had the right to keep a mistress as to show their prosperity. They thought the women were mere stuff of need and slave of men; on the other hand women were punished severely for any adultery found. This discrimination started right from the birth. On the delivery of male baby the person in the family celebrated with joy but on the birth of a girl child they just lamented thinking her to be a curse to the family. The umbilical cord of a male born baby was preserved in the house as he was the asset of the family and would run the generation of the family for century, but if female child was born the umbilical cord was buried in the soil out the house as they were not the member of the family and outsider's umbilical cord were not valuable to preserve. A boy had the right to go for education but a girl had not. According to Andors The self-esteem of Chinese women and girls was all but crushed with being looked at as worthless, since boys were highly valued in single-family homes. Girls were to be for the use of others. In attempts to save money, girls were kept away from school and provided cheap domestic labor instead. It is obvious to see the cultural battle that women in China have before them. The male-dominated household was being challenged to recognize the legitimate other half. Remembering that girls were considered useless, brings to light the true strides that have advanced Chinese society in the form of legal recognition. The intra-familial relations have not evolved along the lines of recognition of the individuality and authenticity of women. Another discrimination of women in China in early twentieth century was the process of foot-binding for the want of satisfaction of beauty by male dominated society. There was tradition that long foot girls were not acceptable by the family of the husband. The long footed girls were not supposed to be beautiful and they would bring a curse to the family, on the other hand short footed girls were supposed to be beautiful and prosperous, so they have to go for the pain process of the foot-binding at the age of three or four. The process of the foot-binding was so painful that they cannot resume their normal life in