1. How could a woman be involved in war and military service in ancient China?
1. Having served in the Marines myself, I was interested in learning learn about the roles of Ancient Chinese women in the military. I learned that women had been excluded from military power in early imperial times. Consorts were able to gain generalships for their male relatives. In addition they were kept from the battlefield In the Han dynasty the site of warfare shifted. After China became unified only civil wars of popular uprising were fought within China. Consequently, officials, were then forced to develop local logistical support, frequently from females. 1831 12} Local uprising created a place where women could become involved. The Red
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The continual struggle for power between consort and officialdom motivated the enemies of imperial ladies to develop rhetoric that justified excluding women from government. [3} 2041. Female influence, which was predicated upon kinship roles. The principal roles were those of wife and mother. Therefore Attempts were made to diminish these roles by putting a woman’s inherent femininity over social roles. A woman was a female first and a mother second. This empowered rhetoricians to contend that women were “intrinsically evil and untrustworthy. [4]. 2043 Furthermore, Han officials were especially adept at rhetoric and used hyperbole to criticize and restrict the power of consorts and their interference in state affairs. Han historians commenced blaming women for the downfall of each dynasty. [5] 2063. With the passage of time, this rhetoric of woman as evil heightened to the point where women were caricatures. Mo Xi a beauteous consort of Emperor Jie was reputed to have led the dynasty to its ruin due to her overindulge and extravagance. It was claimed that she allowed the common people starve while they hanging meat, from trees, as decoration. [6] …show more content…
Early imperial China, ritual placed the individual within larger social, religious, and cosmological conceptual systems. Through ritual performance, the individual assumed appropriate roles within the community. [7] 2455 Ritual c helped t- categorize people not as individuals, but as members of a greater society. They helped to define and individuals place me the world. This, in tur helped women to form an individual performing rituals helped them to solidify their place in society Rituals were a way for a women to appropriately express her female identity. Women distinguished themselves from men and defined her kinship roles. Female status during rituals was more defined by social status then with gender. Elite women sometimes even had advantages over men. Rituals therefore embodied specific views of model female behavior. [8[2513
Marriage was perhaps the most important ritual a woman could undergo. It symbolized the transition of a woman from her natal home, to her married one. It represented a shifting of allegiances. Marriage was believed to fundamentally transform a women and marked the beginning of new societal roles.
Some of the more fascinating documents of the Han period in ancient China were arguably those written by women. The writings were at once contradictory due to the fact that they appeared to destroy the common perceptions of women as uneducated and subservient creatures while simultaneously delivering messages through the texts that demonstrated a strict adherence to traditional values. Those are the paradoxical characteristics of prominent female scholar Ban Zhou’s work called Lesson for a Woman. Because modern opinions on the roles of women in society likely cloud the clear analysis of Zhou’s work, it is necessary to closely examine the Han’s societal norms and popular beliefs that contributed to establishing the author’s perspective and intent.
In the patriarchal, Confucian influenced, Han dynasty, a woman’s role and social status was far from equal to that of a man. In Ban Zhao’s work Lessons for a woman she depicted the role of a woman, as a lower-class member of society. Hidden beneath the stereotypes of what a woman was supposed to be, Ban Zhao was a rarity of her time as she excelled as a historian and teacher.
Women in the US Military - Civil War Era. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.
As stated before, many women who felt that they were involved in nationalist movements saw these opportunities presented to women. In document 4, Teodora Gomes is able to provide us with information about the opportunities of roles in nationalist party leadership for women. In document 1, Manmohini Saghal shows increased public participation of women. In document 2, Song Qingling even shows that women have taken place in military efforts during this time. In document 1, Manmohini Saghal shows increased public participation of women. These documents clearly show how women saw these movements as opportunities to change th...
Most classical society’s political and social organization revolved around the idea of patriarchy, a male dominated social system. This system exacerbated the inherit difference between men and woman and assigned gender roles based on these observations. Men were generally regarded as superior to woman therefore given greater religious and political roles as well as more legal rights. As the natural inverse, women were subordinated and seen as week; their main roles reproductive and domestic. Information about patriarchy in the classical era, though abundant, was, for the most part, written by men, therefore history does not give us an accurate depiction of women’s viewpoints. Four societies of the classical era, India, China, Greece, and Rome, adopted a patriarchal system, however, due to many factors, each developed identifiable characteristics.
Chen, Jo-shui. "Empress Wu and Proto-feminist Sentiments in T'ang China." In Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China, edited by Frederick P. Brandauer and Chün-chieh Huang. 77-116. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
They took on responsibilities traditionally associated with men. For a time, they were the ones at the heads of families, managing land and businesses. They were the ones using intellect to manage finances and physical strength in both the farm fields and battlefields. At times they weren’t being portrayed as the “weaker sex,” and even when they were, they used it to their advantage to obtain key information needed to win battles. These women were determined and dependable, assisting in countless ways, many even risked their own lives in doing their “patriotic
Nishime, LeiLani. "Engendering genre: gender and nationalism in China Men and The Woman Warrior." MELUS20.1 (Spring 95): 67-85.
Many women decided not to stay at home and, rather, accompany their husbands or male relatives with the army. They "traveled with the army to sew, nurse, and wash clothes (Volo 170)." Again the women did the dirty work to ensure the men were always relatively ready for battle. The women that traveled along provided cle...
Women in Ancient Rome lived in a patriarchal society and as a child, the girl would be under a manus and betrothal to her first husband. A dowry was given to both parties of the family and was controlled by the paterfamilias. Marriage was essential to Roman civilization because it kept the population growing, and it provided heirs to thrones or plots of land etc. In order to be married there was four requirements that was listed in the article, “[both] must be free citizens…; must have consent of a relative or
One argument in favour of women shows pictures of what men could be: A convict, lunatic, owner of white slaves, unfit for service and a drunkard. This portrayed men as being responsible, but they still could vote. Then it shows what women could achieve: Mayor, nurse, mother doctor or teacher or a factory hand, which showed them as responsible but they still couldn't the vote.1 Men's attitude towards women during the First World War was still negative. The ability of women to take on the roles of men meant that increasing numbers of men were vulnerable to conscription.2 The women were told that they couldn't vote because they weren't fighting for their country. They couldn't fight because they weren't allowed to.
Henrik Ibsen once said, “A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view.”(Notable Quotes) Ibsen’s statement exemplifies what life was like for women during ancient times. In many of the organized ancient civilizations, it was very common to find a primarily patriarchal civilization in government as well as in society. The causing factors can be attributed to different reasons, the main being the Neolithic Revolution and the new found dependence on manpower it caused. As a result of this, a woman found herself to be placed into an entirely different view in the eye of society. In comparison to the early Paleolithic matriarchal societies, the kinds of changes that came about for women due to the introduction of agriculture are shocking. Since the beginnings of the Neolithic era, the role and rights of women in many ancient civilizations began to become limited and discriminatory as a result of their gender.
Lessons for Women was written by Ban Zhao, the leading female Confucian scholar of classical China, in 100 C.E. It was written to apply Confucian principles to the moral instruction of women, and was particularly addressed to Ban Zhao’s own daughters. As her best remembered work, it allows the reader insight into the common role of a woman during this fascinating time-period. The work starts off by Ban Zhao unconvincingly berating herself, and claiming how she once lived with the constant fear of disgracing her family. This argument is rather implausible, for the reader already knows the credibility of Ban Zhao, and how important her role was in ancient China.
Throughout ancient civilizations, women were lower than men. In some civilizations like Mesopotamia society, women were below slaves. It is not shocking that they would still not be equal to men. In Roman society, women had more independence and people were more encouraging of women being educated in philosophy. In the Hans society, women did not have any freedom. They were required to follow what the men told them. By examining Gaius Musonius Rufus’ essay and Ban Zhao’s essay, the views of women were different. Woman in Roman society had more freedom and women in the Han’s society were required to fulfill her responsibilities.
Examples of cultural constructions can be seen throughout history in several forms such as gender, relationships, and marriage. “Cultural construction of gender emphasizes that different cultures have distinctive ideas about males and females and use these ideas to define manhood/masculinity and womanhood/femininity.” (Humanity, 239) In many cultures gender roles are a great way to gain an understanding of just how different the construction of gender can be amongst individual cultures. The video The Women’s Kingdom provides an example of an uncommon gender role, which is seen in the Wujiao Village where the Mosuo women are the last matriarchy in the country and have been around for over one thousand years. Unlike other rural Chinese villages where many girls are degraded and abandoned at birth, Mosuo woman are proud and run the households where the men simply assist in what they need. The view of gender as a cultural construct ...