Anni Wong Bong Wk 13 Compare the relations between men and women in 19th and early 20th century

China, as described in this week's readings from CC, with those of earlier periods. What has changed, both in terms of ideals and reality, and what continuities do you see? There were both similarities and differences seen in the relations between men and women in 19th and 20th century China to those of earlier periods. Education for women was now promoted. Because men want worthy daughters, men began to contribute by donating money to encourage womens education by building schools. In earlier periods, this was unheard of. Education for women was not promoted. Some men could not even afford education, never the less provide them for women. Women were expected to simply act as housewives, which include duties of cooking, cleaning and bearing children. In the 19th and 20th century, society soon realizes and points out the inequalities of women and that some of the past traditions like feet bounding was unnecessary and pointless. The process of marriage between a man and a woman was unfair to the woman. When a husband dies, a woman is to mourn for three years and never remarry. However, when a husband loses his wife, he simply has to tie blue thread and continue going out. This was what was happening in the earlier periods but now the inequality is recognized. Ideally, society is starting to see the differences between the relations in the present century and past periods. Their viewpoints on treating women has changed and developed different morals on judging these matters. In reality, the government has also began to realize the inequalities. Society felt that the government needed to help make changes and make enforcements. In previous periods, women were seen as objects restricted by many rules. However, rebellion or opinions regarding the rules were not discussed then and fortunately are brought up. Ideally, at least there are opinions about the issue. Men should no longer treat women as objects and in following that, a society to free slave girls was suggested. Continuities of the relations of the earlier periods existed as well. Though inequalities were recognized, most of the time it ended just at recognization. In reality, women were still often looked down upon. Male babies were still preferred over female babies. Marriage was still often a matchmaking process in which the female do not have much choice.