Roles Of Women In Confucian Society

Improved Essays
Confucianism has always been a very patriarchal system. Men have always held the more dominant roles, which allowed them to reign supreme over their wives and children. Confucianism has always looked down upon women. They were seen at the very bottom of Confucian hierarchy, and were expected to play a submissive role in society. Through Ban Zhao and Lady Hyegyong’s books, we can see that women played a more submissive role. The expected roles of women in a Confucian Society were to serve through obedience, birth male children and to follow the four qualifications, and lastly to command her daughter in-law.
Women were expected to demonstrate obedience before all other virtues during their lives. As children, girls were required to obey their
…show more content…
Male children have always been seen as better than female children in Confucianism because the male can carry on the family legacy, as well as take care of his parents. One such reason why males are so much more in desire is because of the fundamental idea of ancestor worship. It is necessary to have a son in order to worship the family’s tradition and their ancestors because girls cannot perform this ritual. Not having a son would leave you at a disadvantage, since this is a key Confucian idea. The second most important role of women in Confucian society was to follow the four qualifications of women. Through Ban Zhao’s reading, the four qualifications are “womanly virtue, womanly words, womanly bearing, and womanly work.” These four “qualifications” just sum up the life of a woman in Confucian society. They are supposed take care of the home, children, follow her in-laws, and treat her husband as heavenly as possible. With the Husband and wife relationship, Yin and Yang can be seen. Yin is the wife and represents her submissiveness, while Yang is the husband’s dominant role over his wife. The two opposing forces support one another and exert perfect …show more content…
Women were expected to serve through obedience. As they aged, their obedience shifted from father to husband, and from husband to son once their husband died. Also, one they were married, a women’s filial devotion was to her in-laws and no longer her own parents. Women were also given the tasks of birthing male children and following the four qualifications, which were womanly virtue, womanly words, womanly bearing, and womanly work. The reasons sons were so important was because of how they carried the family name and performed specific tasks such as ancestor worship, something a daughter could not do. The four qualifications just describe the female role of taking care of the house and children while serving her husband and in-laws. The last role of a women in Confucian society was to take care of the house, son, grandchildren, and most importantly the daughter-in-law so that she would learn her place and duties to fulfill her

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    There is a sense beyond that, perhaps it is addressing not only Confucian women, but rather, all women in general. In the 4th and 5th paragraphs, Ban Zhao uses the sentence starters "Let the woman... "Ban Zhao always addresses the woman, while she never explicitly says 'the wife ' or 'the mother, ' based off of the text, she speaks to the role of a woman in the home. She addresses the woman of the home in the remark "Let a woman retire late to bed, but rise early to duties;" As the woman of her home, Ban Zhao is telling other women to play the proper role in the home, that is, assist all around the house and take up the typical duties of a woman.…

    • 1082 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Yuan Cai’s, The Problems of Women, is a passage from a book written by Yuan Cai. The chinese elite and literate males are the sources’ audience. The book gives advice for other men that are like him and the head of a household. This passage is interesting to me because it pertains to gender and sex roles in the twelfth century. This passage tells me that the culture the author lived in had certain marital and sex standards for males and females.…

    • 1321 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Women and men are the same in rights, treatment, and work, right? Women in japan are forced to be house wives for their husbands, whether or not they want to; they can't pursue jobs or other activities. Men and women deserve to be equal in all things whether it be work or everyday activities anywhere. “Confucian values have created a hierarchy and reinforced the patriarchal structures… ” [In Japan] (Ronzi)…

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Protestant Reformation Dbq

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Many women could not be educated. Only the superior class women were able to be educated if they desired. Nuns were usually their teachers. Married women had to treat their spouse with adoration, care, respect, and had to be active participants in the…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This was especially true for women who wished to do more than just take care of their homes. Women, especially those in power, like Empress Wu, took control of their lives and challenged the typical Chinese social norms. Additionally, Confucian values were both followed and disregarded in The Story of Yingying. Yingying and Zhang both display ideas such as filial piety, humaneness, and etiquette. However, they also break some of the Confucian teachings in order to focus on their personal relationship with one another.…

    • 1491 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Women were expected to get married, have children, work in the home, and obey their husbands. Most women received very little formal education. Although some learned to read and write, many were illiterate. Girls typically learned the skills needed to manage a home from their mother. It was thought that a woman didn't need an education as she was supposed to work in the home.…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Under Confucianism, political orders were not supported, instead good people were promoted. One of the disadvantages of Confucianism was that women were viewed as second class citizens under Confucianism. Confucianism spread rapidly because it was not a threat to their religions, and due to its philosophical nature, it could be blended with other…

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    . Many women internalized the culture of patriarchies, believing that it was their job to obey and serve men and accepted the fact that they were inferior to men. Patriarchal laws defined some rights for women even within marriage Civilizations began to develop and become more prosperous because of the agricultural jobs that men had. The jobs that men accomplished revolved around strength and power and the women while many civilizations were patriarchal, the advent of new religions sometimes allowed women to be treated equally of that society couldn’t perform those tasks. Much like today, gender roles in China, India and the Roman Empire are very different.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    As a whole, ancient Chinese society was a patriarchy. Whilst patriarchal systems are particularly detrimental to women, they ensnare men and women alike. Thus, both men and women of ancient China developed methods of social advancement within the confines of their assigned gender roles to try to ensure a stable future. These methods of upward mobility were the exam system and footbinding respectively.…

    • 1615 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Confucianism has different ideas about everyday life and society importance. One of its significant concepts is to adhere to accepted norms and principles. People’s relationships have to follow a number of responsibilities and duties. Each person should understand and feel comfortable in his/her own role. People, who act correctly, can improve and reorganize the society.…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the 19th century, middle class women’s behavior and roles were being portrayed in a certain way with the idea of the cult of domesticity. The cult of domesticity was created to give limitations to women in the private and public sphere. Women’s role was mainly in the home as caring for her family and participating in house work. Also, women had little interactions with the public because of the cult of domesticity. The cult is based on these four virtues of principles “piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness” that women should dedicate their roles as.…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The relationship among family members was given by Confucian teachings. A philosopher structured the position of male patriarch as the arbiter for the family. Everyone in the family had to subordinate to the oldest male in the family. Marriage was also defined by gender. Marriages benefit…

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A key tradition for women in Shogunate Japan is to obey men throughout her lifetime and Confucianism stressed the pre-eminence of men over women . Men possessed many more liberties than women as they were valued much higher, if a women was widowed she could never marry again, whereas if men were widowed they had the…

    • 1144 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In Confucianism, social scales were reformed to allow individuals to advance socially with talent and intelligence, by diminishing the significance of class. Socially, Confucius created 5 basic relationships. The first basic relationship being between the ruler and the subject, where the ruler is inferior and the subject is superior. The relationship between a father and a son, would be that the father would be in control because of his wisdom and his son would respect and abide by his father. Likewise the relationship between an elder brother and a younger brother would follow the same principles, besides the elder brother would have guidance over the younger brother.…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the early years in America women did not have the same right and the privileges as men. Women were given , the role to stay at home to take care of the children and tending to domestic affairs. This changed when Congress passed the constitutional amendment allowing women to vote. Though the amendment failed In 1972 the Equal Rights Amendment was submitted by congress.…

    • 2375 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics