Chinese patriarchy

Chinese patriarchy

Chinese patriarchy refers to the history and prevalence of male dominance in Chinese society and culture.

Mencius outlined the Three Sub-ordinations. A woman was to be subordinate to her father in youth, her husband in maturity, and her son in old age.

Another one of these famous quotes is that that is also related to the patriarchy found in Athens. "Men are free to roam outside, but the woman must stay inside." From this, we get the foot-binding that restricts the movement of Chinese women and physically forbids them from going outside the house.

A cliche of classical texts, which is repeated throughout the tradition, is the familiar notion that men govern the outer world, while women govern the home. In the Han dynasty, the female historian Ban Zhao wrote the Lessons for Women, advice on how women should behave. She outlines the Four Virtues women must abide by, proper virtue, proper speech, proper countenance, proper merit. The "three subordinations and the four virtues" is a common four-character phrase throughout the imperial period.

As for the historical development of Chinese patriarchy, women's status was highest in the Tang dynasty, when women played sports (polo) and were generally freer in fashion and conduct. Between the Tang and Song dynasties, a fad for little feet arose, and from the Song dynasty onwards footbinding became more and more common for the elite. In the Ming dynasty, a tradition of virtuous widowhood developed. Widows, even if widowed at a young age, would be expected not to remarry. Their virtuous names might be displayed on the arch at the entrance of the village.

Confucian conceptions of "respect for the elders" has been focused on preserving the traditional role of the father as the primary leader and decision maker of the family. In the hierarchy of traditional Chinese cultural family life, the father and sons take prominence over the mother and daughters. Infanticide in China and the preference for boys can be seen as stemming from the boys having more social and economic worth over girls.

Features of patriarchy in 20th and 21st century China are a combination of contemporary problems found even in the West and traditional Chinese issues. Men hold most of the major positions of power within the country, in virtually all political, economic, bureaucratic and military spheres. There is also the issue of forced abortions in China, where the authorities have been accused of giving the women virtually no control over their bodies. Women face a strong social pressure to get married before the age of 30. However, footbinding has been eradicated and trafficking in women in China has greatly reduced. Women have much more economic power and in the cities, much of the traditional social stigma of the working woman has virtually disappeared.

That being said, by far the most prescient issue is the high rate of female infanticide in the country. Parents, given the choice of one child, usually prefer a boy, considering the above mentioned traditional value of the male over the female. This has lead to mass sex selective abortions of females in China. Currently, the gender ratio is remarkable. For every 100 females, there are 113 males. There are numerous social consequences to this, some of which may not be conducive to gender equality. Historically, places with overwhelmingly skewed gender ratios tend to have more established patriarchy. It can be argued that Chinese patriarchy is still extremely well embedded in the 21st century, considering that it is deemed acceptable for parents to want to privilege a male over a female child, if given the choice.

See also

  • Anti-feminism


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