How asian gender roles evolved over time

Gender norms are socially constructed and thus change over time. East Asian women, from ancient times to the contemporary era. start by tracing social and ideological construction of womanhood and femininity in pre-th century East Asian contexts, and critically examine the shifts and transformations of women’s gender roles. Social and ideological construction of woman has varied throughout the past century.

Being in pre-19th century East Asian, women were often considered “low status.” The most deep-rooted ideologies where primarily sexist and originate from the confusion era. Here, the concept of “filial piety” was the most dominant form of ideology as it relates to woman pre 19th century. According to research conducted by Bauer and Wang, filial piety as practiced pre 19th century, was based on three core tenets (Bauer, 1992). The first tenet is that women must obey men at all times, irrespective of how if this behavior can adversely impact woman or her standing in society. Second, citizens must obey their ruler, and third, the young must obey the elderly. For thousands of years pre 19th century, these three tenets help maintained a patriarchal structure in which women where primarily subordinated to men. This led large abuses on the part of men which included purchasing and selling women as if they were objects, beating women, and even engaging in female infanticide. The most brutal of customs was that foot-binding. In Eastern Asian, women with small feet where often considered beautiful. As a result, many Asian countries engaged in the practice of foot binding where they would forcibly bend the toes of young women under the bottom of feet. The feet remained bound for the rest of their lives eventually resulting in deformity. Unable to properly walk, most women were confined to a home environment creating a still further dependance on men.

Gender norms is east Asian gradually improved overtime. The shifts and transformations, ironically where often due to men looking to improve the standing of women in society. For example, the foot binding issue discussed above would eventually be outlawed Qing Dynasty is China. Other eastern Asian countries soon followed, thus allowing for the first step towards gender equality. The reformist movement in the 19th century allowed more women’s initiatives to enter the forefront of male dominated leadership. Here, western ideals began to permeate throughout eastern Asian. Many of these ideal created a movement towards more equitable gender norms. Elements such as democratic social system, family dynamics, and marriage customs began to influence east Asian culture. The most notable of which for women was the idea of a equality between men and women, free rights to marry and love the person of your choosing, heightened educational opportunities for women, and the ability for women to work within the labor markets. All of these prior to the reformist movement where heavily discouraged and often resulted in severe punishments for those who suggested such ideals. These ideals would eventually lead to the May Fourth Feminist movement, which according to research conducted by Zheng Wang, was the first feminist movement in east Asian history (Wang 1997). This movement would challenge the gender stratification of Chinese society in a much public fashion. By 1949 the movement had become much more robust. This would eventually lead to the new government of the People’s Republic of China to make a legally documented commitment towards the equality of both men and women in society. The law established in 1949 would essentially abolish many of the elements within the feudal system and allow women to enjoy equal rights and privileges of men in society. This would eventually lead to a transformation of gender roles in which women where able to enter the work force, obtain higher education levels, and ultimately compete with their male counterparts within society.