The past few lessons saw us looking at the stature of women in China and America. Expressed below are some takeaways and views I hold regarding the issue of the position of women in modern society.
From the readings provided, we saw how women can most definitely be on par with men in the economic sphere. Some women are rich and powerful enough to be speaking with CEOs from other companies as CEOs themselves. Given that women and men both receive the same education, it is a logical deduction that they should, in theory, get the same positions as any man to whom they are academically equal. After all, women can be doctors, or politicians, or writers, or researchers, just as men can be.
Yet, reality for most other women is harsh. From other readings, we see how society, especially in China's rural areas, makes it such that women cannot claim to be equal to men. This is because the men work, as they should, but the women are expected to adhere to tradition and remain at home. If they do go out to work, it is to "distant factories and cities, where they often work as poorly paid waitresses or nannies" (Hornby, 2010). And as China's rural population is still very large, it would be so that for the majority of women, they are not equal to men in that economic sphere that was mentioned.In China as well, there are accounts of women lying about their marital status to secure jobs - it seems that employers do not hire married women for fear of them needing to take more leave for family affairs. This phenomenon is also observed in America, where employees who get pregnant can face a dismissal. Evidently, due to women's traditional role as the domestic parent (in contrast with men, who work outside), certain prejudices still exist, disallowing women to rise to complete equality with men from a societal standpoint. Yet, this seems to be the case more in China than in America. I attribute this to feminist movements in America, which have not been seen in China yet.
Susan B. Anthony (supposedly) once famously refused to pay a hundred-dollar fine for going down to the voting station, and was acquitted of all charges upon this action in court. The woman suffrage movement in America saw women gain more power and political equality to men, and I believe that is one of the reasons why America now sees women in high positions of power - Hillary Clinton even managed to run for President, and though she did not get voted in, this is a far cry from how women could not even vote a long time ago. Regardless of the opinion that Clinton failed in her campaign due to her career largely riding on her husband's name, her running for the post is already impressive. As the former Secretary of State, she was akin to a Minister for Foreign Affairs, an important role, considering America's interest in the world as the global policeman. Whereas in China, women seem to take a backseat role when it comes to governance. "All nine members of the Party's top ruling body, the Politburo Standing Committee...are men", and it is with this Committee "where the real power lies" (Hornby, 2010). In fact, the only politically prominent woman in China would be, in my opinion, the First Lady, but again, I doubt her prominence had she not been the wife of the top man in China. It seems to me that her ability to foster ties with Africa comes direct from her husband's ability to bring her there and not her own achievements as any major political figure. And I firmly believe this is because there has yet to be a woman's revolution in China for true equality - but who knows, in China where no voting is allowed anyway, perhaps even a revolution of men will result in women joining the push. Yet, considering how young Chinese are given to political apathy, perhaps there will be no such revolution. Perhaps the urban women feel they are already equal to men (women even reject suitors if they have no house), and rural women are too busy making ends meet to care about equality.
References:
1. Bakst, D. Pregnant, and Pushed Out of a Job (2012, January 30). Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/opinion/pregnant-and-pushed-out-of-a-job.html on 2014, July 27
2. Dowd, M. A Flawed Feminist Test (2008, February 13). Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/opinion/13dowd.html?_r=0 on 2014, July 27
3. Hornby, L. China's women struggle for a foothold in power (2010, March 7). Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/03/08/us-china-parliament-women-idUSTRE6270FZ20100308 on 2014, July 27
Hi Chong Han,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the interesting reflection that contrasted the feminist movement in China and America. I would go further to say that the women suffrage movement in America was able to grow so strongly, band together so fiercely, because of what I would call “hard” discrimination in a form of voting laws that prohibited female from voting. The America feminists had a clear and concrete enemy to attack, which was institutional discrimination that was manifestly unfair. On the other hand, the discrimination that Chinese feminists face is of the “soft” variety. It comes in a for of tradition, there is a societal expectation and understanding that females are inferior to males, they are expected to stay at home and cook and clean. It is harder for the feminists in China to fight such a nebulous enemy. If and when gender equality comes to China, it may not take the form of a revolution but gradual, incremental change.
Chen Li
Hi Chong Han,
ReplyDeleteThis is indeed a thoughtful and intriguing response, with many of the points made well-supported such that I am swayed to agree with your argument. Indeed, after reading some of the sources that you have provided on gender equality, it seems clearer that gender equality, for this case in China, is more of an ideal rather than a reality to be achieved. It is also notable to see that women still is very much trapped within their traditional roles and not gaining enough power for them to be treated the same as men, hence resulting in the high difficulty or near impossible situation for gender equality to happen.
However, is the situation so bad such that gender equality can never be achieved? I would prefer to look at it from a more optimistic and positive perspective. Although the examples that you gave on women not given the right to vote, women currently possessing minimal amount of political power, there are still some sources that provide statistics indicating an improvement. For example, the article "Women could break Chinese political glass ceiling" by Madison Park provides evidence that "The ratio of female national lawmakers stands at 22%, compared with only 17% in the United States". From this, we can see that there is still a shed of light that women can achieve gender equality in future. There is also a quote by the vice-chairman of the All-China Women's federation that the [Chinese] government "places great importance to empower women's issues". This too, shows that the government is looking into the matter of gender equality and that it will continue to be a topic for discussion. Hence, I still hold on to the hope that gender equality can be achieved between men and women. Thanks!
~Gerald (01)