The Gender Class between the Past and Modern China - Essay Example

   Topic:   The gender between the past and modern China It has been d that women have consistently had a hierarchical status lower than that of Chinese men. Traditionally, Chinese men used to enforce women to stay at home and obey all their instructions. The women in China were not allowed to leave their homes without the permission of their spouse or other male family members. They were not even given freedom and had to do what was asked of them. Especially those people who were religious and political, tried to manipulate the status of women by granting them lesser freedom and opportunities for growth. In today`s world, Chinese women are given greater freedom and opportunities. They are allowed to live a normal life and make their own decisions but even today, the Chinese culture is in favor of men. No matter how much advanced and successful the economy is, men are still preferred more over women and are given greater opportunities. Historically, women were treated as mere creatures rather than members of the human community. The patriarchal structure of the Chinese culture gained a lot of importance during the years 960-1279 CE. During this period of the song dynasty, the gender differences in China reached to its maximum limit. The practice of foot-binding was introduced during this period and though not practiced today, this practice has left a number of foot prints (Gender issues in the Chinese culture, Web). Foot binding is a practice in which a girl`s feet are tightly bound to limit female mobility as well as to restrict the growth of girls. It was a totally inhumane practice which was thought to be started in Imperial China during the 10th or the 11th century. It started as a status symbol indicating a high social rank, but unfortunately spread through out China. Although it has been banned by the Chinese government, its effects can still be seen today as some of its victims are still found today. As a result of this practice, the women affected were not able to support their families by working in the fields and made them dependant. During the same period, women were forced to marry against their wishes and after marriage, had to comply with the wishes of her husband as well as her in laws (Traditions of foot binding in China, Web). Confucianism is the foundation of traditional Chinese system, created by Confucius who displayed gender discrimination by placing women at the lower end of a patriarchal domestic family system. This theory was supported by the initiation of the Neo-Confucianism which placed more restrictions of women. The teachings of Confucius were further strengthened by Ban Zhoa`s “Lesson for girls”. Apart from the practice of foot binding, female infanticide became quite common. The Chinese men only cared about their sons as they would carry forward the family name. The girls born in their family were treated as dirt and were either left to die or were even sold to rich families as mere objects and slaves. Families in China have favored sons over daughters in the past as well and this has increased the number of men in China today. There have been infinite cases of infanticide, better treatment of baby boys than baby girls and abandonment of new born baby girls. This increase in the number of Chinese men has been made possible by advances such as ultrasounds which make it possible to know the sex of the baby about to be born. This has been supported by factual evidence as the number of male births has increased from 108 in 1980s to 120 in 2000. This problem was worsened by the one child policy by the Chinese authorities and people were reluctant to give birth to baby girls as their only child. This increase in the number of men has been predicted to result in a rise in crime rates of sexual violence and other social crimes (China`s great gender crisis, Web). The problem of surplus of women has been felt by the Chinese authorities as they have made it a part of the country`s fie year plan to cut the ratio of the sex gap to 112 or 113 by 2016. There has been little improvement as the sex ratio has fallen from 120 t0 over 118 males in 2010. But there is still lot to do or it has also been predicted that million of Chinese men would have to die single and which would also affect the future generation of China. The ultrasound option has made it possible for people in China to perform sex selective abortion. Sex selective abortion is when families try to abort their child after knowing the gender of the baby and not going through the process of giving birth. As a result of this, the government of China has increased laws and its measures against this type of selective sex abortion. These measures should be implemented in a proper way so as to give effective results. Critics of these measures believe that these would further result in an increase of illegal and unsafe abortions and could also lead to female infanticide. The government will have to make sure that all the discrepancies resulting from this increased control are controlled and remover from the Chinese society (China`s great gender crisis, Web). By 1996, there was a change in the beliefs of the Chinese culture. The ratio of the sex gap decreased from a record of 129 in 1987 to 109.5 in 1996. Sooner, it fell further to reach the natural level of the sex gap in the Chinese population. Females started getting more opportunities and were offered jobs in order to increase their status in the society and giving them chances to become independent. Female workers started getting more jobs and were preferred more due to their ability to create less trouble and be more responsible for the tasks involved. Especially women living in the urban world got exposed to a whole set of new ideas and learnt to fight for their rights. Even the male family members understood the importance of equality and started giving more opportunities and freedom to their wives and other female member of their family. There has been a change in the status of women, not only in urban but as well as in the rural society of China. Women are given more freedom and not enforced to stay at home. Although women are required to take care of the family and perform everyday tasks, they are given more opportunities as compared to those living in the previous centuries. A change resulting in an increased status of women in China can be linked to increased restrictions imposed by the Chinese government. The Chinese government spent around 300 million Yuan for its efforts in bringing about a change in the differences in the sex gap. The government also introduced new laws and regulations having serious punishments for those involved in selective sex abortions. The general motive of this campaign was to increase the general level of female equality in China. As part of this campaign, a program was initiated for areas of serious gender discrimination in order to increase the status of women in these regions. This campaign has resulted in increased equality and promises to continue to bring about effective results in near future (China`s great gender crisis, Web). Although the traditional views of women equality are inappropriate, there have been a number of exceptions as far as theories, beliefs and real life examples are concerned. In contrast of the Confucianism belief, the Yin Yang belief portrays equality for both men and women. The symbol of Yin Yang consists of Yin which was a black feminine as well as Yang, a white masculine. The symbol of yin Yang depicts balance of power, meaning that both men and women should work in harmony in order to balance the level of equality so as to maintain order. The Yin is also a symbol of passiveness showing that women`s role in the society is a passive one. As far as real life examples are concerned, the history of the Chinese culture shows a number of examples of strong, powerful women who tried to alter the traditional beliefs of the Chinese culture as well as those of its society. Wu Zetian is such an example of a woman who was the only female emperor of China. She was a supporter of Buddhism as it promoted the role of women in the society. During her time of rule, women were offered more opportunities and given greater freedom. She was such a strong supporter of rights for women that she gave a challenge to the believers of Confucianism by appointing scholars to write about women and also by appointing political positions to her family members in order to increase the support of equality if women rights. Another example of a strong and powerful woman is that of a renowned literary heroine, Fa Mu Lan. She appeared in a poem in 420-589 CE during the Northern dynasties and was a strong supporter of human as well as women rights (Gender issues in the Chinese culture, Web). The beliefs of Confucianism started to disappear during the period 1949-1976 CE. During this Maoist period, the government tried to reduce the cases of gender discrimination by placing more emphasis on the similarities between men and women and discarding the differences. This campaign brought effective results as it managed to change the thinking of traditional Chinese citizens and promoted the concept of equal rights for men and women. The Chinese government also used the term `iron girls` to portray that women are strong and are capable of handling work involving labor intensive techniques. This term further enhanced and supported the similarities between men and women and helped to further promote this campaign of equal rights. The effects of gender discrimination also affected the corporate world as women were unable to find work having equal importance to those offered to men with the same level of expertise. During 1966-1976, the issue of gender discrimination received little importance due to the rise in the controversy of class struggle. Women were facing no equality in the professional world as well but slowly and gradually, women started making their place in the professional world and started getting jobs of an equal level of those offered to their male counter parts. But during this period of the 1980s, women continued to receive lower wages and had to experience a higher rate of layoffs. They were still held responsible for solely managing and maintaining their households (Gender issues in the Chinese culture, Web). The current trends of the Chinese population demographics show a low birth rate as compared to the previous years. In 2012, there were more than 118 boys for every 100 girls. This poses serious challenges for the demographic structure of China. The Chinese policy of one child has had serious implications on its society. Female infanticide increased as people wanted baby boys who could continue their family names in the future. The government, on the other hand, still supports its decision of the one child policy and believes that as a result of this policy, 400 million births were prevented which if happened, could not have been supported by the country`s existing level of resources. This policy was taken to counter the effects of an increasing population in China. They argue that if this policy was not undertaken then they would have been unable to lower the fertility and birth rates of China which would have causes problems for China. Secondly, if this policy was not affected then the population would have continued to rise (China`s population: The most surprising demographic crisis, Web). In all, the government believes that this policy was successful in achieving its objectives. As compared to the traditional views of population growth and gender discrimination, women are given much better opportunities and greater freedom. They are living a much better, peaceful life as compared to the Chinese women living in the earlier centuries. Works Cited: China's population: The most surprising demographic crisis | The Economist. 2012. China's population: The most surprising demographic crisis | The Economist. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.economist.com/node/18651512. [Accessed 10 November 2012]. Gender Issues in the Chinese Culture | eHow.com. 2012. Gender Issues in the Chinese Culture | eHow.com. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ehow.com/info_8116285_gender-issues-chinese-culture.html. [Accessed 10 November 2012]. China's great gender crisis | World news | The Guardian. 2012. China's great gender crisis | World news | The Guardian. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/02/chinas-great-gender-crisis. [Accessed 10 November 2012]. Read More