Home / Summaries / Understanding contemporary China / women-property-rights

Women and Development - The "Traditional" Portrait of Chinese Women

4 important questions on Women and Development - The "Traditional" Portrait of Chinese Women

Describe the traditional portrait of Chinese women

Women were relatively powerless compared to men. Their low status was derived from the classical Chinese family and kinship system. There were patriarchical household based on patrilineal descent (inheritance through male line) and partilocal residence (in the household of the groom's father). Women lacked legal rights to own their own property and could themselves be transacted as property. Their parents arranged their marriages without their consent and their feet were bound to improve beauty and chances of getting married. Their stature could increase slightly by giving birth to sons.

Why should the traditional portrait of Chinese women be considered with caution?

There is little information available about local forms of gender inequality and family organization among China's nonliterate population. Scientists only started to investigate the role of women of different classes and subcultures in the 20th century. The traditional portrait is thus a generalized and timeless abstraction that ignores historical change and regional variation.

Recent studies reveal that there were indeed differences according to class and that shifts in women's economic activities, dowry and property rights, forms of marriage and legal rights occurred in earlier centuries.

Which advantages did women gain during the Song dynasty?

increased transmission of dowry property to daughters
sustained to women's kin after marriage
opportunities for elite daughters to read and write
growing opportunities for women to earn money through producing textiles and art