How Did Lady Nijo Follow The Feminist Movement?

At the beginning, the feminist movement in England focused on women’s suffrage; however, these women did not stop once they received a voice in politics. Feminism soon became a movement that was focused on equality for women in all aspects of life including but not limited to the home, the workplace, politic representation, and economic resources. Feminism is generally considered a generational movement, which means each generation picks up where the previous one left off; therefore, the struggles a mother faced is handed down to her daughter causing the issue to stay in the family. If feminism strictly followed this model for feminism, then any struggle a woman undergoes only aids the individual and her future daughters but does not impact

In the Production Note, she is described as “Japanese, was an Emperor’s courtesan and later a Buddhist nun who travelled on foot through Japan” (Churchill 9). Nijo was given to the Emperor of Japan by her father at the age of fourteen at which time the Emperor raped her, but she explains to Marlene that he did not rape her because she “belonged to him, it was what I was brought up for from a baby” (Churchill 13). Nijo obeyed her father as well as the Emperor because she was raised in a patriarchal society in which women are expected to obey men. During the thirteenth century in Japan, it was common practice for the men “to beat their women with sticks across their loins so they’ll have sons and not daughters” (Churchill 38). Nijo shares a story from when she was eighteen in which the Emperor allowed his attendants to beat his women. After the beating, Nijo and all of the other women hid in his room, and Nijo “beat him till he cried out and promised he would never order anyone to hit us again” (Churchill 38). Due to the attack on the Emperor, Nijo fell out of his favor and took up a life as a nun. Nijo stood up for herself even though she had been brought up to obey men. This was not the natural reaction a woman would have had during the thirteenth century, but it caused the Emperor to respect his women in the future. The action also allowed women in the future to stand up for themselves when they were put in situations by men that they did not agree with