The role of women in China is an area that has been a subject of discussion in the past years of the country’s history. Historically, China is one of the countries that have high cases of alleged women oppression leading to gender inequality. In the years preceding the beginning of the communist rules, the oppression was dreadfully distressing, and women were held in disregard. In fact, according to Small Happiness, the birth of a female was considered to be small happiness in comparison to a bigger happiness in the case of the opposite. Liyi He goes on to explain in his book “Mr. China’s son”, the cultures on marriages that did not allow for women to choose their own partners and had to rely on the insight of parents and elders. The fact that the woman was considered sold to another household while the young men were left home, cements the evidence of the bad situation at the time. Women were also forced to maintain smaller feet, approximately three inches, through a painful process right from the tender age of around four years. The oppressive treatment of women was expected to stop when the Communist government took up power in the country. It is worthy to note that there have been changes that have undoubtedly changed the status of the woman in the society. However, it seems that these measures may not be enough in the current status of the society.
The situation in the country has changed in between the two periods. Prior to the Communist rule taking over, women had little or almost no say in the instance of marriage and ownership of property. However, this has changed. In the movie, Small Happiness, there have been variations in the role of women’s insight on marriage. In the movie, a young girl detracts from the advice of her parents to instead marry a person that she actually likes. In the past, the women were forced to live with the family of the husband. Apart from the traces of descendants being along the lines of man, the woman was also considered a servant of the mother-in-law. With the Communist rule, this has been abolished since the government decided that this was one of the rules that were detracting development. Another rule that was abolished is that concerning the maintaining of small feet. However, according to some old women in the movie, some of them have decided not to let this culture go easily.
As much as these situations can be considered as improvements to the role of women in the society, there are still areas that undermine the woman even through this rule. In the class notes discussed recently, the role of gender comes into careful scrutiny. The woman may be allowed to marry the person of their choice, but they still have to live with the family of the husband. The partilocal and partlinear instances lead to even more male dominance. This means that even though the oppression of the woman has been minimized directly, still the man dominates society. Women have little control over property. This is not even mentioning the abortion rules that have been introduced in the country which have consequently reduced the number of woman and thus creating an imbalanced ratio. Also, birth of girls in the society is not regarded as worthwhile, and even some claim that a woman without a son is still childless. Thus, the role of women in the society has changed between the two periods both before and after the communist rule, although it is still clear that the woman still has an inferior position in society.
