The Status of Women in Chinese and Pakistani Societes

The gender roles have continuously evolved in all the societies throughout the history of mankind. Each society has constructed its own social structure with different and distinct roles assigned to men and women. If we go back into the history, we see that most of the societies have differentiated men and women based on their roles in the society, with productive roles such as earning bread and providing for the basic necessities assigned predominantly to the men and reproductive roles such as bringing up children, taking care of family and other household chores mainly given to the women. However, wave of modernization has significantly altered this equation in almost all parts of the world. Old notions of women should not leave their homes are now considered obsolete and oppressive. Women can now make at least some decisions about their lives and career, marriage and children. Modern women are challenging the traditional ideas of what a woman should be allowed to do. The older idea of the division of productive and reproductive roles for men and women respectively might have been conceived keeping in mind the physical differences between the men and the women as women were considered weak and thus unable to work in the harsh outside environment or due to some religious or sexual stigmas attached to women, but in today’s world women have proven their worth in each and every role whether it is being a housewife, a good engineer, teacher, scientist, an athlete or running a successful business and this has forced the society to alter the roles previously assigned to them. Although majority of women in developed and some of the developing countries have achieved much success in claiming their rights, some societies are still reluctant to allow women to become equal to men in social status.

Chinese Women in Ancient China

Men have enjoyed central and powerful role throughout the history of ancient china. The proposition can be supported by the fact that in ancient china the ancestors to whom the Zhou and Shang dynasty kings made sacrifices were his patrilineal ancestors while women only enter the official historical records for the problems they have caused for their men. The roles and loyalties of women of even most powerful families were often in question. The many instances recorded in the history reveal the women as potential intriguers, manipulators and selfish causing problems for the men in nobility.

In feudal Chinese society spanning over several millennia and in semi-feudal society women of china have experience of a bitter history which is marked with oppression, degradation and abasement. In the feudal social structure, the women were not considered equal to men, rather inferior and subordinate to them in various aspects of society.

The one of the most celebrated and prevalent philosophy in the mainland china is Confucianism. Confucius also took these attitudes towards the women as for granted. While advocating the family virtues that would lead to a healthy and peaceful society, he placed conservative rules on women which are known as “three obedience” and “four virtues”. Three obediences, obedience to the father while she is young, obedience of her husband after the marriage and obedience of her son after the death of her husband and the four virtues i.e. morality, modest speech, modest manner and diligence provided the scale to measure a woman’s score of being good or bad. For a woman to be obedient to men of her family and to keep her from protesting for her rights or taking a powerful position Confucius considered ignorance to be a virtue for women. This contributed to the dismal literacy rate for the women in ancient china.

A woman was not supposed to choose husband of her choice in the ancient Chinese society. She had to follow the advice of her parents and matchmakers. Woman had to move to the husband’s family after the marriage and stay with her in-laws even in case her husband was away. She had no right to divorce her husband or remarry after his death.

These constraints make women appear as a commodity in the ancient china without any legal or social rights. She appears to be born to serve men without asking for anything in return. She has got no power to take decisions on matters affecting her own life. She must work hard to prove her worth but still she is overly dependent on the men of her family.

Modern Chinese Women

With the breakdown of the feudal system and foundation of people’s republic, the mass movements to change the economic and cultural outlook left over by the old china accelerated the process of family revolution to eliminate the much-revered feudal patriarchal system and substitute it with a more democratic family structure. This helped the women of china to challenge the constraints of three obediences and play an important role in development of society while reclaiming their fair position in the family system.

Today Chinese women are free to choose their spouse which reflects their improved status in family system. Parents have not much influence on their daughters to choose their husbands. This is in direct contrast to what we see in old Chinese society. The reason for this may be attributed to economic freedom that women of today’s china enjoys as compared to that of old china where she was dependant on provisions from men.

The economic freedom comes as a result of better education and training. With her status elevated, women can now go to academic institutes and choose professions of her choice. The better education brings good money and more freedom to make the decisions.

According to various surveys, the women of modern china have more decision-making power with their husbands as compared to the past. These decisions may include the matters regarding choosing food, clothes, items of daily use, on family issues such as starting a business or making an investment and on their own personal matters.

In old patriarchal society a son was necessary to continue to lineage and hence women were under pressure to give birth to a son, birth of a daughter was not celebrated. Also, as mentioned above a daughter had to move to her husband’s home after marriage so the parents wanted son who will provide them security when they are old. Today when people have social security covers, they care less about the gender of the child. According to surveys majority of women want to have a daughter instead of a son. Anyways, being a daughter has seized to be a source of shame for the family.

Marriage Laws of china now give women right to divorce their husband. Old society would see divorce as a taboo and emphasized more on making peace between the spouses rather than opting to divorce each other making the family matters public. This view has changed, and divorce is no more a taboo in family relationships.

Women of the Indian Subcontinent

Since Pakistan is a newly born state with its independence on 14^th day of August 1947 it is difficult to draw a comparison between the status of women in the old Chinese society and presumably old Pakistani society. So, I would start with the status of women in old society of undivided India, which was divided in 1947 into Pakistan and India. The history of India is as old as human civilization. The unearthed relics including scriptures of Indus valley civilization (circa 2300 BC) which is one of the oldest civilizations of the world are yet to be deciphered which can give us an insight into the evolving status of women in ancient India. However, it is pertinent to mention here that India has been attacked repeatedly by the intruders from various parts of Asia and Europe throughout its history and due to these intrusions Indian family system has quite uneven history with almost every intruder attempting to alter the social structure to benefit his needs.

The invasion of India by Aryans marks the start of Vedic period extending from about 1600 to 800 BC is considered as the heart of the golden age of Indian culture. Throughout the Aryan period the women enjoyed an equal status as men in the society. Vedas the holy Hindu scriptures comprising of religious hymns, there are many hymns in the Vedas that are supposed to have compiled by women. In Buddhism the women could become nuns who though subordinate to male monks enjoyed a special status in the society for their services. There are instances of women ruthlessly questioning the male scholars in the courts of kings leading to formulation of new philosophies and ideas.

In the Mauryan Empire which succeeded Vedic period, is a bright period for women in society in which women had property rights, rights of inheritance, remarry after the death of her husband, freedom to choose husband, to take part in economic activities such as wage-labour, courtesans and court attendants.

Status of women tarnishes in the Gupta empire (A.D 320-540) when women were expected to be educated to give and to take sexual pleasure and to be faithful wives. The legal rights for women were greatly circumscribed during this period. The law dictates women to be obedient to her father, husband and son (three obediences), she should worship her husband as god, she should not remarry after the death of her husband, she had no property rights. The laws also placed some restrictions on the age difference for men and women while they marry and those were huge. In this way the Manu’s Law severely reduced the rights that Indian women enjoyed throughout the history.

During the Mughal period (Muslim rulers of India) the role of women in the society and their status had deteriorated as compared to that of ancient India. They had become subordinate to the men in society. Yet they enjoyed huge respect in family, the were educated and there are many of them who acquired scholarly fame during this period. There was a division of society into classes, the upper class and the lower class. The women of the upper class had more rights than those of the lower classes, they were educated, Muslim women had right to divorce, they could remarry after the death of husband. Women of the lower classes were not allowed to remarry after the death of their husband. Muslim women were subjected to observe purdah and were not educated. Polygamy was prevalent among Muslims. By the end of this period, women had become the articles of pleasure for men and inferior to men.

After the British occupation of India in 18^th century, the women of India regained some status in the society. They could adopt several professions mainly those in which they had to cater to the needs of female clients, like teachers, nurses and gynaecologists. There were several laws to protect women from harsh treatments by men. During this period women took part in political activities, made several associations and took part in various political movements. Though women regained some of their lost status in the society, but it was still very far from the privileges that they had enjoyed during the ancient times.

Women of Pakistan

The status of women in Pakistan is not homogenous because of the interconnection of gender with other forms of exclusion in the society. There is considerable diversity in the status of women across classes, regions, and the rural/urban divide due to uneven socioeconomic development and the impact of tribal, feudal, and capitalist social formations on women’s lives. However, women’s situation vis-à-vis men is one of systemic subordination, determined by the forces of patriarchy across classes, regions, and the rural/urban divide.

Gender is the organizing principle of Pakistani society. The women are primarily considered as subordinate to men and have got roles of a mother and wife. The gender disparity is evident in the society due to the religious and cultural ideologies of purdah(veil), negative social biases and restrictions on women to stay inside four walls of the house. Few prominent religious scholars who enjoy wide following hold women responsible for all the evil in the world and have not forgiven her for the "original sin." (Eve’s act of eating and hence tempting Adam to eat forbidden fruit).  Due to the element of honour attached to the women’ sexuality she has restrictions on the mobility, education and choosing professions.

Purdah or the veil restricts the women to the courtyards of their homes. The men can perform the tasks that are to be done outside the home, in several regions the women can’t even go out for the shopping and other tasks of trivial nature. Except the big cities, the women going out for work is considered to be shameless and bringing disgrace to the family.

The women have no say in choosing their husband. The marriage is decided by the parents of the girls. Though men also have to get approval of their parents before marrying a girl, yet their choice is considered while taking the decision, in contrast to this, the girls cannot propose to marry a man on her own or she can’t refuse to the proposal of a marriage accepted by her parents.

After the marriage the girl must move to her husband’s home and take care of his parents and other in-laws to become a good wife. She must remain with her in-laws even her husband is away. Due to this, parents often consider it futile to spend money on a girl’s education and they are left uneducated and dependant on husband to provide for her needs.

Due to patriarchal nature of the society and poor economics, people want her to give birth to sons so that they can help them in earning and birth of women is not celebrated as much as the birth of a boy.

Decision making power rests with the elder male in the home. Women can give their opinion, but their opinions do not matter much for men.

Divorce rate is quite low, though women have legal right to divorce their husband but due to social stigma attached to the divorce, it is normally considered bad for a woman to divorce her husband. The differences between the married couples are settled by elders and relatives of both spouses and making these matters public is considered to bring shame to the family.

Honour killing is a big problem in Pakistani society especially in the rural areas where women are killed if they marry or date or marry a person of their choice. If a couple manages to escape the killing, the court of local elders called “panchayat” often gives right to the family of the girl to rape or to marry the sister of the boy who committed the ‘crime’.

Though life of women in urban centres is not as much difficult as of those in rural areas but there are still many restrictions. They can work, go to schools and colleges, often date but still the factor of honour attached to the women hinders them to practice their freedom. A girl not observing purdah, or a girl who is frank with unrelated males, or a woman who is too open is not considered a good girl suited for marriage to a boy from a good family.

Pakistani society is predominantly a Muslim society with 96 percent Muslims. The religion itself gives equal rights to women as men. She is entitled to the inheritance of her father, mother or her husband after their death, she is free to choose her husband. It is obligatory for Muslim parents to give good education to their children irrespective of their sex. She can work in whichever field she wants. Still women of majority Muslim state seldom get these religiously guaranteed rights of inheritance, marriage, divorce, education and all others. It can be deduced that it is not the religion that hinders Pakistani women for gaining a status equal to men. As mentioned earlier, Indian subcontinent was attacked by various intruders throughout the history and with every new ruler the social equation kept on changing. Originally from the period of Vedas up to the period just before Guptas, women enjoyed equal rights in the Indian society. With the rise of Gupta Empire women were circumscribed of most of the freedoms that they have been enjoying and became inferior to men. This coincides with the rise of Brahmanism where men pushed the women to the corner in religious, economic, social and cultural realms and established themselves as the masters of the family and society. This equation could not be overturned till today and women had been constantly under the subjugation of men in the Indian subcontinent (both India and Pakistan).

The above discussion gives insight into the historical roles of women in both Chinese in Indian society and how it has evolved with time. As far as Chinese woman is concerned, she had been under male subjugation for centuries in the feudal system. She had no rights to education, work, marriage, divorce, decision making even to give birth to children. She was considered good if she kept her mouth shut and her hands busy. But the political revolution paved the way for the cultural revolution and hence the old ideas about women were questioned and a new family system evolved which was more favourable to women as compared to past. She got much of the freedoms and their voice could no longer be muted. There is still a long journey for women of china to call themselves free women like those of Europe of America.

As far as old Indian or Modern Pakistani society is concerned, we see a reverse pattern. The women of India enjoyed more freedom in Past than they enjoy it today. In Pakistani society, women were active in the political movements which resulted in the independence of the country. Society was relatively open to adopt western values and with that came emancipation for women, especially in urban environment. With the wave of Islamization in late 1970’s the process of westernization stopped. It was a very difficult time for the women of Pakistani society as they were effectively relegated to 2^nd class citizens of their own country. News casters were required to take a veil on their heads while reading news on television, women should not come close to men even in dramas and serials, movies were subject to extreme censorship, women were lashed in public for crimes like ‘fornication’. This made life of women in society very hard and they were left to remain behind closed doors of their homes.

Women are almost 50 percent of Pakistani population and keeping them away from taking part in economic activities is in no way good for a weak and fragile economy like Pakistan, hence in late 90’s there were efforts on government’s part to change the situation. Women were encouraged to take part in sports, to get good education and to start small businesses. There were a lot of feminist movements to educate women and society of the roles a woman can play to benefit her family and society. There emerged role models like the first and the only female Prime Minister of our country Benazir Bhutto, Nobel laurate Malala Yousafzai who advocates girl’s education in a very conservative region of Pakistan. The women were given important offices in government like speakers of the legislative assemblies and several important misters were women. Women can join the armed forces and can be elevated to the highest ranks. They are given special quota to join superior civil services in every government department. Despite all these efforts, a huge majority of Pakistani women is under extreme male domination in every sphere of their lives.

The history reveals that man has never considered a woman an equal being whether it is in Chinese society of Indian society and she has been constantly subjected to subjugation of her male counterparts. Chinese women got their somewhat fair role in society after the cultural revolution which required women to work along with men and hence turned the equation in favour of women emancipation. In Pakistani or Indian society, the subjugation of women started being observed as religious obligation and women seem to have accepted their position as such. Huge inflation, worse poverty and fragile economy has nudged the society to tap the potential of women which constitute half of the Pakistani population and we see an increase in trend of acceptance of women being equal to their male counterparts in urban regions as well as some rural regions. The typical subjugated image of Pakistani women reflects the centuries-old patriarchy deeply rooted in the subcontinent. Although emancipation and empowerment has always been documented in legal documents, this has not come to the reality fully yet.

I would like to add a passage from a woman columnist based in Islamabad the capital of Pakistan which shows ambition of Pakistani women to break the shackles of subjugation.

“Pakistani society hates to see a self-reliant attitude among girls and young women manifested in ambition, assertiveness, and individualism. They are dead against women liberation and they want to keep them under shackles. Women play role of daughter, wife, mother, and sister and yet she is considered inferior and her role is always downplayed. If girl tries to support herself or family, she is ridiculed and laughed away. Still, the “kamai” earning of the girl is considered shameful in many quarters of our society. At the end I want to say that women are considered as the architects of our society and the mothers of the world. No other creature on the surface of this earth is capable of that. So, all Pakistani women be happy, be healthy and be confident to rule the world.”