On the Women’s Status Seen in Pride and Prejudice美文学(2)
2013-05-05 01:04
导读：Then, social advancement was crucial to women, who were denied the involvement in politics, the possibility of improving their status through hard work and there was little generally perceived need fo
Then, social advancement was crucial to women, who were denied the involvement in politics, the possibility of improving their status through hard work and there was little generally perceived need for them to receive a higher education.
In old China, things were similar. Especially, China was a country in which the feudal society lasted for several millennia. The traditional feudal ideologies on women had deeply rooted and women in old China experienced a bitter history. For example, Confucian philosophy preached the male superiority conception and women were to obey—first, their fathers; after marriage, their husbands; during widowhood, their sons. They were completely excluded from social and political life. Economically dependent, women were robbed of property and inheritance rights and possessed no independent source of income. Having no social status, women were considered as the private property of men, was to please their husbands and to bear
their children. They had no personal dignity or independent status, and were deprived of the right to receive an education and take part in social activities. They enjoyed no freedom in marriage but had to obey the dictates of their parents and heed the words of matchmakers, and were not allowed to remarry if their spouses died. They were subject to physical and mental torture, being harassed by systems of polygamy and prostitution, and the overwhelming majority of them were forced to bind their feet from childhood. For centuries, "women with bound feet" was a synonym for the female gender in China. But things were different to men. Men in old China held virtually all the powers, social status, respectability, wealth, and the privilege to choose their wives and a man could marry more than one woman who didn’t have the well-matched background as he. Also, the most important thing was that the wife who was married must be a virgin. Men could treat women as their private property or attachment, even slave, depending on their wills.
A. Social Reform as the Precondition of Women’s Emancipation
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In China, the feudal society lasted several millennia and in the subsequent century of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, Chinese women experienced a bitter history of prolonged oppression, degradation and abasement. From the first half of this century, masses of women plunged into an undaunted and heroic struggle lasting several decades
They struggled for the protection of their own rights and the enhancement of their status. This was a quest for their emancipation.
Social reform is thought as the precondition of women’s emancipation. It was not until the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 that brought a historic change for Chinese women. And a new era in the emancipation of Chinese women was ushered in. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, there was a surge of mass movements throughout the country to quickly change the backward economic and cultural outlook left over by old China and eradicate the antiquated system and outmoded customs that fettered, discriminated against and humiliated women. This effected an earth-shaking historic change in the social status and condition of women.
Then again, after experienced series government reforms, such as, campaigns for gradually wiping out illiteracy in 1952, 1956, and in 1958; publicity and implementation of the Marriage Law, reforms on women’s political and working life, and so on. Women’s status was enhanced, to a large extent.
By means of these large-scale mass movements, New China took only a few years to clean up the filth and mire left over from a feudal society that had lasted for thousands of years. It effected fundamental emancipation for women in all aspects of political, economic, cultural, social and family life. This represented a significant transformation in the history of contemporary social development that China can be proud of. It was also an important contribution made by the Chinese revolution to the worldwide movement for women's liberation.
China attaches great importance to providing legal protection for females. In 1992, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women promulgated, which provided an effective legal weapon for further enhancing the social status of women and guaranteeing their basic rights and interests. Under Chinese law, women can enjoy the legitimate rights:
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Firstly, women enjoy equal political rights with men. Women have the right, through various channels and in various ways, to administer state and social affairs, and enjoy equal rights to vote and stand for election;
Secondly, women enjoy equal rights with men with respect to culture and education. These cover school admittance, advancement to higher levels of schooling, job assignment after graduation, conferment of academic degrees and being dispatched for study abroad, plus women's rights to engage in scientific and technological research and literary and artistic creation. The government, society, school and family have the responsibility to ensure that the right of female children and adolescents to receive compulsory education is observed.
Thirdly, women enjoy equal working rights with men. These mainly include: the right to work and be employed, equal pay for equal work, time-off, on-the-job safety and medical care as well as special labor protection, and social insurance. The law stipulates that any unit, while recruiting employees, is not allowed to refuse to employ women or raise the recruitment standards for women under any pretext. It cannot fire women or unilaterally annul their labor contracts on the pretext of marriage, pregnancy, maternity leave or baby nursing. It is not allowed to discriminate against women in terms of promotion, award of academic and technical titles, allotment of housing and enjoyment of welfare benefits, or to assign women to tasks that are not suitable for them. Women enjoy special protection during menstruation, pregnancy, child birth and baby nursing period.
Fourthly, women enjoy equal property rights with men. The law stipulates that rural women enjoy the same rights as rural men in the allotment of "responsibility farmland" and "grain-ration farmland" and in the approval of housing sites. With regard to marriage and family property, women enjoy equal ownership and inheritance rights with men. Widows have the right to dispose of property they inherit,
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without interference from anyone.
Fifthly, women enjoy equal rights with men relating to their persons. Women enjoy the right to life and health, freedom of the person, the right of portrait, reputation and other rights relating to the person; and they enjoy the right of kinship, guardianship, fame and status as a producer. The law prohibits abandonment and drowning of female babies and other forms of infanticide and bans discrimination against and maltreatment of women who give birth to female babies and women who are sterile. It forbids tormenting women with superstitious and violent means and bans maltreatment or abandonment of aged women. It forbids the abduction and kidnapping of women as well as the sale and purchase of such women. It bans actions to organize, force, seduce, shelter or introduce women to engage in prostitution.
Lastly, women enjoy equal rights with men in marriage and the family. The law states that women enjoy equal freedom in marriage and divorce, and the relations between husband and wife are equal. Women can use their own surnames and given names and participate in production and social activities. Women are subject to special protection with regard to divorce. While clearly delineating the various concrete rights and interests of women, China's legislation amplifies the responsibilities of state organs in protecting women and clarifies the special status and role of the women's federations and other women's organizations in lawsuits, thus establishing a comprehensive legal mechanism for protecting women. Among the 54 articles of the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women, 75 percent list in detail the consequences and legal responsibilities for infringements, thus providing an operational legal basis for enforcement of the law.
In sum, it is true that in China much has been done to emancipate women in the past half century, however, China is a developing country. Owing to the constraints of social development and the influence of old concepts, the condition of Chinese women is still not wholly satisfactory. There exist various difficulties and resistance
（科教范文网 lw.nseaC.Com编辑发布） which have prevented the full realization of equal rights to women with respect to their participation in political and government affairs, employment, access to education, as well as marriage and family. Instances of looking down upon and discrimination against women and even infringement of their rights still occur from time to time. Therefore, certain provisions on the legal rights of women and guarantee mechanisms need to be further improved. At the same time, the government should set up a central mechanism to examine implementation of government policies, expenditure proposals and legislation to ensure equality for both sexes. Many things remain to be done.
B. Women’s Fighting Against Feudal Ideology and Self-Cultivation
Although in the latest several decades, Chinese women have made a great historic leap in the enhancement of women’s status. And we can say that women’s situation in present day is totally different from that of old China. However, Chinese women today still face discrimination; they are usually treated unfairly in many aspects, and are denied their privilege, certain individuals.
Because some immutable and strongly feudal beliefs still remain today, especially in some countryside districts. For example the male still enjoy the dominating status, and men virtually authorize and control women, embodying in social institutions of power, for instance, in the family, law, and government, and their legitimating ideologies. In the country, society is patriarchal. And under patriarchy, maleness is viewed as the norm and is the prevailing perspective, but female is considered to be outside the main stream of the life and society.
Traditional feudal ideologies, such as, “husband sings and wife accompanies”, “the male is superior to the female”, “virtuous wife”, “three obedience conception: women obey-first, their fathers; after marriage, their husbands; during widowhood, their sons”, and so on, which are still prevailing in modern Chinese society. Take “Husband sings and wife accompanies” as an example, the expression means that a wife’s obedience to her husband is generally considered as an important requisite for a harmonious and happy family, under such an idea, a wife is not supposed to have her own independent will and opinions, but should unconditionally obey her husband. 中国大学排名
As a Chinese woman, no matter she is a daughter, a wife, or a mother; she has to carry more unequal responsibility under the traditional gender norm. They have no choice but do all the caring work, such as bearing children, doing housework, which were thought to be women’s obligation. Although Chinese also women are an important part of the labor force, yet, they always have been cheap labor because of their low education, few choices of jobs, and their heavy load of housework. Also, they are under they pressure of traditional idea that “men are mainly responsible in external affairs and women are mainly responsible for internal affairs”. This is a popular traditional idea remaining in modern society, which means that men have the privilege to work outside the home, and men are thought to work outside the home and women should just stay at home. So many men view women working outside the home as against natural law and therefore women should return to their family to attend to household affairs and raise their children. In some poor districts, even if they work, their pay is low and working conditions are poor, and their income is lower than they should obtain.
Although the feudal conceptions of China have changed much, the life experiences of Chinese women keep influenced by their traditional ethnic or gender norm. Therefore, women’s emancipation emphasizes on women’s self-awakeness and their participation in enhancing movement for the women’s status. First, women should know clearly that the ideology “man is noble and woman is humble” is deeply rooted in women’s economic dependence. Thus, the enhancement of women’s own economic situation will certainly lead to the improvement of women’s status. Second, on today’s IT society, the level of education and knowledge play the most important role, and if women want to gain equal opportunities and fair chance with men in society, they must receive a higher education and enlarge their knowledge scope, enrich their economic, political and worldwide affair views.
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In sum, to enhance women’s status, Chinese women have plunged into an undaunted and historic struggle. The key to their emancipation is to change their values, and not to surrender to traditional feudal ideology, and to eradicate all backward ideas of discriminating against and looking down on women. At the same time, women must set up the idea of self-cultivation, including self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-reliance. All in all, women need to earn their own dignity, respect their own person-hood, and oppose actions that demean themselves. Women should believe in their own power, establish a firm faith and reject underestimation of their abilities; they must pursue their cultivation of an independent attitude, fulfill their own potential through social practice, and give up the ideology of dependence
and weakness
.
Conclusion
Women’s status has been being a hot topic, and people are more and more care about it. Although with the development of the society and economy, women’s status has been enhanced, women still suffer unfair treatment from the society and individuals. They enjoy less opportunities and privilege than men. Through the discussing the reasons of women’s low status and the comparison of the women’s status in the novel Pride and Prejudice with in old China, this paper shows that old China was a traditional feudal country, in which the feudal ideology had deeply rooted and limited women’s development. So modern women want to enhance their status, first they must have self-awareness, and let them more self-reliance especially in the aspect of economy. Also self-confidence is an important precondition for women’s enhancement of status. Additionally, the government should take actions to help women enhance their status and should set up a central mechanism to examine implementation of government policies, expenditure proposals and legislation to ensure equality for both sexes.
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