Women in ancient China were treated unequally to men Essay

Women in ancient China were treated unequally to men - Essay Example A person may often comply when prompted to act in a certain way by another whether or not they believe it is the correct course to take because the outcome of non-compliance may be or lead with undesirable social consequences. Obedience differs from compliance. A person will obey a directive from a person accepted as an authoritative figure because they do not believe that they have a choice whereas complying is more of a choice. The women of ancient China had little choice but to obey their male counterparts regardless of whether they were fathers, brothers, husbands or even sons and had few options as to how their life was going to turn out. Although their lives were often miserable and completely constrained within the boundaries set by them by the men in their family, few women had the courage or even the idea to try to make things better. Those who did try to make a difference were often silenced by cruel or deadly means and were unable to make much headway in a culture so compl etely ingrained in both the male and female mind. In many ways, the living conditions for women in China remained fundamentally the same for thousands of years reaching even into the 1900s as the country resisted the effects of globalization felt elsewhere. The purpose of this paper is to explore the various ways in which women were treated unequal to men beginning with the writings of Confucius and extending into fictional literature that presents an image of what this sort of life might have looked like. The basic fabric of Chinese society was formed upon the foundations set by Confucius (551-479 BC). During his lifetime, Confucius worked as a political leader and was one of history’s great early philosophers. â€Å"His teachings †¦ form the foundation of much of subsequent Chinese speculation on the education and comportment of the ideal man, how such an individual should live his life and interact with others, and the forms of society and government in which he