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Comparing the Women of China, Korea and Japan
Essay Instructions:
Have to compare the role of women in china,japan and korea on the basis of these 6 books.No other sources are required.Please cite whatever is taken directly from the book properly. Mention all three countries and talk about the social and economic struggles of women. some notes are attached below
1) Ancestor Worship and Korean Society (Stanford)
2) Class Struggle or Family Struggle (Cambridge)
3) Shinohata (UC Press)
4)Japanese Workers in Protest (UC Press)
5) Private Life Under Socialism (Stanford)
6)Against the Law: Labor Protests in Chinaʼs Rustbelt and Sunbelt (UC Press
Fall 2011 EASC 150g / Carolyn Lee
- If you choose to use outside sources, use them appropriately. For example, some students used sources that reiterated things already stated in the Janelli or Kim book. If you can find it in the course books, use the course books - don't refer to unnecessary outside sources. It will not help your grade. In other words, don't include outside sources to just look like you did “additional research” or “work.” The grader will not be impressed.
- CITE everything that is not your own original idea. Make it clear in the body of your paper where your own ideas begin and end. Plagiarism is bad.
- You MUST refer to all four books in the 2nd paper or you will not receive full credit. - I will look at outlines and rough drafts through email until Monday. (I probably won't give very helpful comments if you
wait until Monday night. Try to get started earlier.)
Shinohata and Japanese Workers in Protest Notes
- group dynamics - social interactions/relations - collectivism vs. individuality - relationships (spousal, parental/filial, in-laws, neighbors, management/workers) - hierarchy - egalitarianism - solidarity - accommodation vs. resistance - tradition vs. modernity - gender bias - labor reform, protests, rights - status formation - organization/s in both rural villages and urban factories
Shinohata by Ronald Dore
- Relationships: pp 48 patron-client relationship (landlord/tenant) pp 152-171 in-law relationships; “yome” is the Japanese word for “daughter-in-law”
- pp 49-50 village associations (organization of the village) pp 192-194 “Family day”
Relates also the idea of the village as an organization, much like a factory. Could look at how the organization of villages and factories mirror one another: “Being a member of the village is very much like being a member of an organization like a school or a factory” (211).
“It is the democratic happy family, not the authoritarian virtues of filial piety, which the town's leaders seek to nurture now. Family Day is the first Sunday in every month, as numerous painted signposts are placed around the township to remind one, with accompanying slogans like ‘A happy family is a healthy family', ‘The family that talks together stays together'” (193).
- Modernity – clothing: pp 77 “Even at their cheap prices the total cost of a kimono with dyeing charges added worked out at two to three hundred dollars, with a suitable obi sash another seventy or a hundred extra. What to Westerners are simply symbols of Japaneseness, to Shinohata women are symbols of an expensive middle-class way of life which they can only now begin to afford” (77).
This is such an interesting quote. You would think that conforming to a more middle-class and modern lifestyle would be to dress in more Western clothes?, but in this case it seems to be the opposite. It seems at this time (50s-60s), kimonos were still used as a way to assert status and wealth. I'm thinking of the conflict between tradition and modernity..Significant themes to focus on that overlap with Korea books:
Fall 2011 EASC 150g / Carolyn Lee
- Influence of American occupation (changes in ideology) “Then, more recently, the creeping egalitarianism of the pre-war period gave way to the galloping egalitarianism of the immediate post-war years of the American occupation. The change in the tenor of press and radio commentary was remarkable. One heard no more of ‘loyalty', ‘patriotism', ‘service'. ‘The dignity of man', ‘human rights', were the new hurrah words and ‘feudal', ‘patriarchal' were the new boo words. According to the letter columns in the newspapers, a husband who refused to let his wife go to flower-arranging classes, the father who insisted on his teenage daughter being home by 11 o'clock, were ‘feudal': the word could be used to decry any resented exercise of the privileges of superior age or status.” (294)
This is not proof however that Japanese society is less patriarchal than Korean society. We are getting only one picture of rural Japanese society and one picture of rural Korean society, by two different authors, who have different agendas. Consider the possible biases of the authors, and how it may affect their depictions of gender roles and norms. Be careful if comparing treatment of women in Japanese and Korean society. Saying something like “women are treated better in Japanese society than in Korean society” is too simplistic a view. [Look at Sachiko Ide's article excerpt if you have time]
- Shinto, spirits, the mystical (pp 256-261) o Spirit mediums pp 258-259 (compare to shamanism in Korea)
- Egalitarianism (from Professor Cooper's lecture 10/20/2011) o expression of community
o rice planting o construction of houses o annual/semi-annual (April and September) festivals - closely related to shinto (Shinohata has 3 shinto shrines) -
people enjoy the entertainment - hierarchy is ignored, sense of freedom and freedom of expression - sumo wrestling, martial artists, street musicians perform - expectations of conventional social interaction are suspended, license for people to act in more egalitarian ways
o p 211 - village is like an organization
Japanese Workers in Protest by Christena Turner A study of two companies and their workers: Unikon Camera Company and Universal Shoes (not the real names of the actual companies)
- -
Summary of arguments: pp 8-9; 237-238 Consciousness and action: pp 63-65; accommodation and resistance: pp 18-20
o “People at all levels of the unions were living with and reacting to choices about industrial organization even as they were fighting to gain the right to do so on a legal and permanent basis. Questions about capitalism, democracy, power, equality, productivity and about creating a living workplace community were at once issues of daily experience and of political struggle. Words written on banners and marched under were being transformed into daily experience. People were challenged to believe not only in what they strove toward but in what they were living as well” (19).
o “They felt angry, they knew why they were angry, and they took actions that expressed that anger. Their dignity as human beings was offended and their legal rights as organized workers were ignored. The organizational skill of Unikon leaders lay in weaving the threads of heartfelt offense against human dignity and ideological protest into collective actions which integrated goals of worker control and goals of worker participation into a single powerful movement” (63-4).
o Staying or quitting: pp 20; 139-141
o Formation of consciousness: pp 248-252
o “Decisive and successful social action can be taken, and I would suggest inevitably is taken, while consciousness is in the process of being formed ... Furthermore, all social experiences matter, from daily life routines like those of a usual workday or casual chatting over tea or sake, to periodic events like union meetings, company outings, to exceptional occasions like demonstrations, formal parties, or internal union conflicts” (237-8).
Fall 2011 EASC 150g / Carolyn Lee
o Action: pp 199
- Parallels between the companies and “rural community”: pp 92 o “In all of these forms of usage, however, what seemed consistent was the contextualizing of images of family
relationships within a social organization most frequently imagined to be like a village or neighborhood” (94).
- Hierarchy (and consciousness of...) pp 92-94 o Use of family as metaphor: p 93
- Affect
Seems to differ from Kim's discussion of the company as a “family” in Korean factories
o The roles of “anger and closeness”: pp 59 o Anger was the main reason people joined [the struggle], but closeness and solidarity was the main reason people
stayed (59-60).
- Breaking the stereotypes of Japanese workers o “Images of Japanese workers as docile and passive in contexts of efficiently run, highly productive industrial
enterprises continue to be pervasive. We seem wedded to an image of intensely modern, even postmodern, high-tech products being designed and manufactured by traditional workers trapped in the social relations and cultural practices of an isolated and feudal past” (8-9).
o “This kind of processual analysis is particularly important to the study of Japan, where stereotypes of tradition- bound, docile, and submissive workers continue to encumber our understanding. It becomes possible to see industrial workers as active participants in the ongoing evolution of their own labor relations, of their own social organizations, and of their own conceptual world. While their histories, their remembered pasts, and their embedded sense of what is natural or commonsensical shape their social and cultural worlds, they are themselves the agents of their constitution” (238).
- Egalitarianism: pp 215 o “Horizontal working relationships”
o How does the idea of the organization as a “family” relate to this? o “tiny socialism”
Fall 2011 EASC 150g / Carolyn Lee
Sachiko Ide, linguist, “Women's language, Men's language” excerpt from Broken Silence: voices of Japanese feminism (ed. Excerpt from “Women's language, Men's language” by Sachiko Ide:
Ide, Sachiko. “Women's language, Men's language.” In Broken Silence: voices of Japanese feminism, edited by Sandra Buckley, 62- 64. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
Sandra Buckley). 1997. pp 62-64
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The Role of Women in East Asia:
Comparing the Women of China, Korea and Japan
There are so many literatures saying that women in Korea, Japan and China are extremely marginalized in history, but study of such sources reveal contemporary authorship. Ancient scholarship about East Asian women shows that they enjoyed greater power compared to their contemporary. While the rise of patriarchy differ from one country to another, the good news is that the bases of many discriminatory practices are slowly disappearing thanks to globalization and the rise of women`s rights (as embodied by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women or CEDAW). There is an increasing need to understand the world, especially the role that women played in history. With greater understanding of human rights came the need to find out more about women and gender in order to understand their experiences and historical issues.
Schools of Thought for Understanding Women and their Issues
Much of the literatures on women`s history are written in the form of social history which highlights the experience of women as mothers, outcasts, homemakers and recently, low-class workers. Studies on women written in the 70s and 80s brought the issue of race - of African Americans who worked as slaves and prostitutes. In the mid-1980s, gender theory emerged and it brought to light the idea that masculinity and femininity are but social constructs rather than determined biologically. According to Joan W. Scott, the leading proponent of gender theory, gender preference came as a by-product of power and the hierarchy of meaning and value. Men became important mainly because the problems faced by the world in the past required their physical strength and mental stability. But then again, modern paradigm for development have shown that in many countries, women are now major forces in the both the economy and politics. Women have entered realms never before possible, and they are now deemed as co-creators of the future.
How has East Asia treated its women? What is the current position of women in Japan, Korea and China? What was their journey towards better treatment in society? This paper is a narrative on the experience of women in these countries - what their roles were in traditional society, how they struggled to be given the right to work outside of the home, how they were subjected to harsh working condition as well as how their traditional roles have been transformed in modern society.
Women in Ancient East Asia
Written record of women in China existed at the time of Confucius, but still, these were scarce and did not present an accurate picture of women in the 16th century B.C.E. Much of the writings concerned women who belonged to the elite women of ancient China, and literature about ordinary women were written only after the Sung dynasty in 10th century C.E. ADDIN Mendeley Citation{2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Smith", "given" : "Bonnie G." } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2005" ] ] }, "publisher" : "American Historical Association", "title" : "Women's history in global perspective", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Smith 28)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Smith)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Smith 28) Meanwhile in Japan, references about aristocratic women began in the 3rd century C.E. but little is known about the ordinary woman. In Korea, scholarship of Korean women can be found in text written during the Three Kingdoms of Koguryo, Paekche and Silla, but most of these references have not yet been translated in English and will no longer be discussed in this section ADDIN Mendeley Citation{2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Smith", "given" : "Bonnie G." } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2005" ] ] }, "publisher" : "American Historical Association", "title" : "Women's history in global perspective", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Smith 29)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Smith)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Smith 29).
Confucius was a major influence among ancient Chinese women. In his Analects. the philosopher wrote little about women, but many of his interpreters have used this work as an entry point for prescribing the conduct of women and girls in the society. Explicitly, they stated the need for the woman to be subjected to the wills of her family, husband and sons. Whatever dreams a woman has, she has to fulfill it indirectly through her sons. Confucian manuals for girls behavior prescribed humility, modesty, meekness and hardwork ADDIN Mendeley Citation{2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Smith", "given" : "Bonnie G." } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2005" ] ] }, "publisher" : "American Historical Association", "title" : "Women's history in global perspective", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Smith 31)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Smith)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Smith 31) - virtues which continues to be highly valued among women of the 20th century. Yet, studies of aristocrat women of imperial China showed that these women were afforded greater power compared to their contemporaries. Women in imperial families had a choice over who will become as future empress; there were even reports when male aristocrats had to struggle against the natal family of the empress trying to usurp the royal lineage. While the ruling elite men were permitted to have more than one wife, wives were allowed to initiate divorce against their husbands. Meanwhile in a research by Jennifer Holmgren, she discovered that princesses, daughters of the emperors during the Han to Ming dynasties had access to the palace wherein their brothers were vanquished to remote provinces. While in the palace, these women were able to advance their own interests by rallying sympathetic forces. But it must be noted that despite the relative power women had during ancient China, they could not speak out publicly. They had to work in silence or risk death. Princesses and women of elite families were sent to distant rulers as "wedding gifts" or to bind the alliance between two families. Meanwhile evidences show that ordinary women during the Sung and Tang periods had strong property rights and they had control over how to use their dowries. Women also had near monopoly over cloth making allowing them to be highly regarded in the society ADDIN Mendeley Citation{2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Smith", "given" : "Bonnie G." } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2005" ] ] }, "publisher" : "American Historical Association", "title" : "Women's history in global perspective", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Smith 31)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Smith)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Smith 31). One of the main concerns during this period is foot binding but such an issue was not explored in-depth in earlier writings.
Before 1945, Japan had little to no scholarship about women because there was widespread understanding that women have always been confined to home and whose duties consisted mainly of ensuring the family well-being. Such a belief was challenged only in the 1960s with the assertion that patriarchy did not exist in Japan until the 3rd century C.E. or perhaps as late as the 14th century C.E. Feminist research claimed that marriage in the country was "matrilocal, women were property holders and there was a tradition of female shaman leaders" ADDIN Mendeley Citation{2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Smith", "given" : "Bonnie G." } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2005" ] ] }, "publisher" : "American Historical Association", "title" : "Women's history in global perspective", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Smith 31)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Smith)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Smith 31). While there is no consensus as to the date when patriarchy began, there is common understanding that whatever power women held, completely disappeared by 1500 C.E.Early Japanese literature had women as the best authors, but they all wrote in seclusion and the only adult male who could see them were their fathers, husbands or lovers. Girls who were to become members of the court were taught the art of calligraphy, music and poetry. While visible political power in the early Japanese era was held by men, it was the women who had power to choose who will become consort to the prince, or regent for the minor king. Research showed that the rise of the warrior class and the shoguns ended the dominance of women and matrilineal inheritance.
East Asian Women in the 17th to 18th Century
To understand the status of women in modern East Asia, one has to understand the family systems for each country as gender role are often assigned in the family level. For example, in some cultures, women stand as head of the family, hence they have greater power over their household.
Research shows that family systems have been changing in the past couple of years. The system found in the 17th to 18th century, may no longer be found today as most of them were based on economics.
William Skinner defines family systems as "the customary, normative manner in which family processes unfold" ADDIN Mendeley Citation{83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Skinner", "given" : "G. William" } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2002" ] ] }, "title" : "Family and Reproduction in East Asia: China, Korea, and Japan compared", "type" : "report" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Skinner 2)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Skinner)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Skinner 2). According to Skinner, the normal domestic cycle in China is of a classic patrilineal joint family. The daughters are married off according to age and they are required to live with their mothers-in-law while the sons and their wives live with the parents. When all the other sons are married, the family breaks off and an independent (nuclear) family is created. Korean family systems is a variant of the Chinese system: daughters are married off but the sons stay with their parents until they their own children are born. The eldest son receives the majority of the inheritance and such possessions are passed on through the patriline.
In both Korea and China, there is a strong preference for sons. The more sons there was, the greater capability for the household to diversify their family economy. In China, however, the desire to have more sons is held in check with family division and inheritance. More children for the Chinese meant more people sharing the inheritance, and greater tendency towards poverty. Women were secluded in the domestic realm and have limited contacts with other members of the community. They do not organize themselves in large, visible groups, do not work, and have no political roles and they. Perhaps one difference between the Korean and Chinese women is that the Chinese allowed women to walk in funeral processions where in the Koreans do not ADDIN Mendeley Citation{83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Skinner", "given" : "G. William" } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2002" ] ] }, "title" : "Family and Reproduction in East Asia: China, Korea, and Japan compared", "type" : "report" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Skinner 6)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Skinner)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Skinner 6). Moreover, Chinese women had the same roles in domestic ancestral rites as men, in Korea, women are exluded from the rites altogether ADDIN Mendeley Citation{f7ba116f-10f4-4cef-9e83-f3521f3a8385} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Janelli", "given" : "Roger L." }, { "family" : "Janelli", "given" : "Dawnhee Yim" } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "1982" ] ] }, "publisher" : "Stanford University Press", "publisher-place" : "Stanford", "title" : "Ancestor Worship and Korean Society", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=f7ba116f-10f4-4cef-9e83-f3521f3a8385" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(R. L. Janelli and D. Y. Janelli 183)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(R. L. Janelli and D. Y. Janelli)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (R. L. Janelli and D. Y. Janelli 183).
Because daughters have to live with their husbands, they often referred to as "lost goods" for her family. On the other hand, her mother-in-law gains a helping hand as they take over much of the new household`s chores. She then provides a significant relief to the mother-in-law who is probably overburdened with taking care of the household`s needs. Moreover, daughters allow their natal family to expand their networks - she can be married off to a higher status family, and forge alliance with another powerful family. This is, however, important only in the Chinese family since families with all-girls offsprings can bring in a son-in-law and save the patriline whereas the Koreans does not accept such heirship strategy, hence they would sometimes be hostile to their own daughters.
The Japanese domestic system is much more different because it operates as a single-heir system ADDIN Mendeley Citation{83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Skinner", "given" : "G. William" } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2002" ] ] }, "title" : "Family and Reproduction in East Asia: China, Korea, and Japan compared", "type" : "report" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Skinner 10)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Skinner)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Skinner 10). The single heir is often the eldest son who will be married to a daughter of an elite family. All the other sons remain unmarried. Meanwhile, a daughter of the family is married to an heir of another family. Perhaps one of the distinctive features of the Japanese society is that women had greater control over her sexuality compared to the Chinese and Korean. Premarital sex was fairly common in the Japanese villages and widows were stereotyped as "promiscuous" ADDIN Mendeley Citation{83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Skinner", "given" : "G. William" } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2002" ] ] }, "title" : "Family and Reproduction in East Asia: China, Korea, and Japan compared", "type" : "report" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Skinner 12)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Skinner)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw...
[course number]
[date of submission]
The Role of Women in East Asia:
Comparing the Women of China, Korea and Japan
There are so many literatures saying that women in Korea, Japan and China are extremely marginalized in history, but study of such sources reveal contemporary authorship. Ancient scholarship about East Asian women shows that they enjoyed greater power compared to their contemporary. While the rise of patriarchy differ from one country to another, the good news is that the bases of many discriminatory practices are slowly disappearing thanks to globalization and the rise of women`s rights (as embodied by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women or CEDAW). There is an increasing need to understand the world, especially the role that women played in history. With greater understanding of human rights came the need to find out more about women and gender in order to understand their experiences and historical issues.
Schools of Thought for Understanding Women and their Issues
Much of the literatures on women`s history are written in the form of social history which highlights the experience of women as mothers, outcasts, homemakers and recently, low-class workers. Studies on women written in the 70s and 80s brought the issue of race - of African Americans who worked as slaves and prostitutes. In the mid-1980s, gender theory emerged and it brought to light the idea that masculinity and femininity are but social constructs rather than determined biologically. According to Joan W. Scott, the leading proponent of gender theory, gender preference came as a by-product of power and the hierarchy of meaning and value. Men became important mainly because the problems faced by the world in the past required their physical strength and mental stability. But then again, modern paradigm for development have shown that in many countries, women are now major forces in the both the economy and politics. Women have entered realms never before possible, and they are now deemed as co-creators of the future.
How has East Asia treated its women? What is the current position of women in Japan, Korea and China? What was their journey towards better treatment in society? This paper is a narrative on the experience of women in these countries - what their roles were in traditional society, how they struggled to be given the right to work outside of the home, how they were subjected to harsh working condition as well as how their traditional roles have been transformed in modern society.
Women in Ancient East Asia
Written record of women in China existed at the time of Confucius, but still, these were scarce and did not present an accurate picture of women in the 16th century B.C.E. Much of the writings concerned women who belonged to the elite women of ancient China, and literature about ordinary women were written only after the Sung dynasty in 10th century C.E. ADDIN Mendeley Citation{2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Smith", "given" : "Bonnie G." } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2005" ] ] }, "publisher" : "American Historical Association", "title" : "Women's history in global perspective", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Smith 28)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Smith)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Smith 28) Meanwhile in Japan, references about aristocratic women began in the 3rd century C.E. but little is known about the ordinary woman. In Korea, scholarship of Korean women can be found in text written during the Three Kingdoms of Koguryo, Paekche and Silla, but most of these references have not yet been translated in English and will no longer be discussed in this section ADDIN Mendeley Citation{2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Smith", "given" : "Bonnie G." } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2005" ] ] }, "publisher" : "American Historical Association", "title" : "Women's history in global perspective", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Smith 29)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Smith)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Smith 29).
Confucius was a major influence among ancient Chinese women. In his Analects. the philosopher wrote little about women, but many of his interpreters have used this work as an entry point for prescribing the conduct of women and girls in the society. Explicitly, they stated the need for the woman to be subjected to the wills of her family, husband and sons. Whatever dreams a woman has, she has to fulfill it indirectly through her sons. Confucian manuals for girls behavior prescribed humility, modesty, meekness and hardwork ADDIN Mendeley Citation{2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Smith", "given" : "Bonnie G." } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2005" ] ] }, "publisher" : "American Historical Association", "title" : "Women's history in global perspective", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Smith 31)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Smith)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Smith 31) - virtues which continues to be highly valued among women of the 20th century. Yet, studies of aristocrat women of imperial China showed that these women were afforded greater power compared to their contemporaries. Women in imperial families had a choice over who will become as future empress; there were even reports when male aristocrats had to struggle against the natal family of the empress trying to usurp the royal lineage. While the ruling elite men were permitted to have more than one wife, wives were allowed to initiate divorce against their husbands. Meanwhile in a research by Jennifer Holmgren, she discovered that princesses, daughters of the emperors during the Han to Ming dynasties had access to the palace wherein their brothers were vanquished to remote provinces. While in the palace, these women were able to advance their own interests by rallying sympathetic forces. But it must be noted that despite the relative power women had during ancient China, they could not speak out publicly. They had to work in silence or risk death. Princesses and women of elite families were sent to distant rulers as "wedding gifts" or to bind the alliance between two families. Meanwhile evidences show that ordinary women during the Sung and Tang periods had strong property rights and they had control over how to use their dowries. Women also had near monopoly over cloth making allowing them to be highly regarded in the society ADDIN Mendeley Citation{2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Smith", "given" : "Bonnie G." } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2005" ] ] }, "publisher" : "American Historical Association", "title" : "Women's history in global perspective", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Smith 31)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Smith)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Smith 31). One of the main concerns during this period is foot binding but such an issue was not explored in-depth in earlier writings.
Before 1945, Japan had little to no scholarship about women because there was widespread understanding that women have always been confined to home and whose duties consisted mainly of ensuring the family well-being. Such a belief was challenged only in the 1960s with the assertion that patriarchy did not exist in Japan until the 3rd century C.E. or perhaps as late as the 14th century C.E. Feminist research claimed that marriage in the country was "matrilocal, women were property holders and there was a tradition of female shaman leaders" ADDIN Mendeley Citation{2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Smith", "given" : "Bonnie G." } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2005" ] ] }, "publisher" : "American Historical Association", "title" : "Women's history in global perspective", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=2d6d64b5-19e2-4240-ba88-71695b45ccf6" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Smith 31)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Smith)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Smith 31). While there is no consensus as to the date when patriarchy began, there is common understanding that whatever power women held, completely disappeared by 1500 C.E.Early Japanese literature had women as the best authors, but they all wrote in seclusion and the only adult male who could see them were their fathers, husbands or lovers. Girls who were to become members of the court were taught the art of calligraphy, music and poetry. While visible political power in the early Japanese era was held by men, it was the women who had power to choose who will become consort to the prince, or regent for the minor king. Research showed that the rise of the warrior class and the shoguns ended the dominance of women and matrilineal inheritance.
East Asian Women in the 17th to 18th Century
To understand the status of women in modern East Asia, one has to understand the family systems for each country as gender role are often assigned in the family level. For example, in some cultures, women stand as head of the family, hence they have greater power over their household.
Research shows that family systems have been changing in the past couple of years. The system found in the 17th to 18th century, may no longer be found today as most of them were based on economics.
William Skinner defines family systems as "the customary, normative manner in which family processes unfold" ADDIN Mendeley Citation{83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Skinner", "given" : "G. William" } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2002" ] ] }, "title" : "Family and Reproduction in East Asia: China, Korea, and Japan compared", "type" : "report" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Skinner 2)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Skinner)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Skinner 2). According to Skinner, the normal domestic cycle in China is of a classic patrilineal joint family. The daughters are married off according to age and they are required to live with their mothers-in-law while the sons and their wives live with the parents. When all the other sons are married, the family breaks off and an independent (nuclear) family is created. Korean family systems is a variant of the Chinese system: daughters are married off but the sons stay with their parents until they their own children are born. The eldest son receives the majority of the inheritance and such possessions are passed on through the patriline.
In both Korea and China, there is a strong preference for sons. The more sons there was, the greater capability for the household to diversify their family economy. In China, however, the desire to have more sons is held in check with family division and inheritance. More children for the Chinese meant more people sharing the inheritance, and greater tendency towards poverty. Women were secluded in the domestic realm and have limited contacts with other members of the community. They do not organize themselves in large, visible groups, do not work, and have no political roles and they. Perhaps one difference between the Korean and Chinese women is that the Chinese allowed women to walk in funeral processions where in the Koreans do not ADDIN Mendeley Citation{83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Skinner", "given" : "G. William" } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2002" ] ] }, "title" : "Family and Reproduction in East Asia: China, Korea, and Japan compared", "type" : "report" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Skinner 6)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Skinner)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Skinner 6). Moreover, Chinese women had the same roles in domestic ancestral rites as men, in Korea, women are exluded from the rites altogether ADDIN Mendeley Citation{f7ba116f-10f4-4cef-9e83-f3521f3a8385} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Janelli", "given" : "Roger L." }, { "family" : "Janelli", "given" : "Dawnhee Yim" } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "1982" ] ] }, "publisher" : "Stanford University Press", "publisher-place" : "Stanford", "title" : "Ancestor Worship and Korean Society", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=f7ba116f-10f4-4cef-9e83-f3521f3a8385" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(R. L. Janelli and D. Y. Janelli 183)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(R. L. Janelli and D. Y. Janelli)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (R. L. Janelli and D. Y. Janelli 183).
Because daughters have to live with their husbands, they often referred to as "lost goods" for her family. On the other hand, her mother-in-law gains a helping hand as they take over much of the new household`s chores. She then provides a significant relief to the mother-in-law who is probably overburdened with taking care of the household`s needs. Moreover, daughters allow their natal family to expand their networks - she can be married off to a higher status family, and forge alliance with another powerful family. This is, however, important only in the Chinese family since families with all-girls offsprings can bring in a son-in-law and save the patriline whereas the Koreans does not accept such heirship strategy, hence they would sometimes be hostile to their own daughters.
The Japanese domestic system is much more different because it operates as a single-heir system ADDIN Mendeley Citation{83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Skinner", "given" : "G. William" } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2002" ] ] }, "title" : "Family and Reproduction in East Asia: China, Korea, and Japan compared", "type" : "report" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Skinner 10)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Skinner)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Skinner 10). The single heir is often the eldest son who will be married to a daughter of an elite family. All the other sons remain unmarried. Meanwhile, a daughter of the family is married to an heir of another family. Perhaps one of the distinctive features of the Japanese society is that women had greater control over her sexuality compared to the Chinese and Korean. Premarital sex was fairly common in the Japanese villages and widows were stereotyped as "promiscuous" ADDIN Mendeley Citation{83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Skinner", "given" : "G. William" } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2002" ] ] }, "title" : "Family and Reproduction in East Asia: China, Korea, and Japan compared", "type" : "report" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=83bb88ac-1b57-469c-8e01-3e9cea00f110" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Skinner 12)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Skinner)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw...
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