Women In Early Confucianism

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Since the beginning of early Confucianism, women in early China suffered oppression. Unfortunately, the religion holds much responsibility for the sexism. Confucius’s answers for the Chinese people’s way of living consisted of sexual discrimination and segregation towards females. Women in China were urged to meet the expectations outlined in Confucian ideals. Such concepts were mainly limited to the men. Thus, Confucianism defined gender expectations. Confucianism stimulated the inequality of women in Chinese culture. Men and women in early China were separated by the idea of the Yin and Yang cosmic forces. These forces are complementary to each other. However they are hierarchical. Consequently, they lead to oppression. With the aspect …show more content…

In early Chinese society, men and women were divided into two spheres, known as the Nei-Wai. This simply means the inner and outer separation of the sexes in everyday life. The Wai sphere corresponds to the literary realm whereas the Nei sphere pertains to the housework duties. The outer sphere (Wai) represents the public and social life, which men are assigned. The inner sphere (Nei), or domestic, corresponds to the women. While the men have all the power to be employed, hold public offices, and handle social affairs, women are expected to handle the domestic affairs. According to the Nei-Wai, women are not permitted to engage in the social sphere. If a woman become literate, she crossed roles of the inner, domestic sphere and outer, social sphere. Such an occurrence disturbs the equilibrium of the confucian social roles and norms. Therefore, she must conceal her literary talents to prevent social chaos. The feature of Nei-Wei in Confucianism explicitly states the oppression of …show more content…

Confucian beliefs dictated how the children were raised according to their gender. At the time of a girl’s birth, she is placed below the bed and given a piece of broken pottery. As a female, being placed beneath the bed signifies her low rank. The piece of pottery symbolizes her duty to practice house labors and primary duties. Later in their childhood, girls were expected to stay behind in the women’s quarters and were forbidden to go out often. From their young age, they were also taught not to disrespect authority; the authority being a male. This emphasizes the patriarchal hierarchy of

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