The Modern Woman's Rights Movement: A Historical SurveySchirmacher, Käthe
History
The Modern Woman's Rights Movement: A Historical Survey
Schirmacher, Käthe
Women -- Social and moral questions; Women's rights
The earnings of the Chinese wife belong to her husband. But in case of a
dispute in this matter, no court would decide in the husband's favor, for
he is supposed to be "the bread winner" of the family. Polygamy is
customary; but the Chinese may have only _one_ legitimate wife (while the
Mohammedan may have four). The concubine has the status of a _hetaera_;
she travels with the man, keeps his accounts, etc. The Chinese woman of
the property owning class lives, in contrast to the Hindoo woman, a life
filled with domestic duties. She makes all the clothes for the family;
even the most wealthy women embroider. Frequently the wife succeeds in
becoming the adviser of the husband. A widow is not despised; she can
remarry. The women of the lower classes engage in agriculture, domestic
service, the retail business, all kinds of agencies and commission
businesses, factory work (to a small extent), medical science (practiced
in a purely experimental way), and midwifery; they carry burdens and
assist in the loading and unloading of ships. Women's wages are one half
or three fourths of those of the men.
The lives of the Chinese women, especially among the lower classes, are so
wretched that mothers believe they are doing a good deed when they
strangle their little girls, or place them on the doorstep where they will
be gathered up by the wagon that collects the corpses of children. Many
married women commit suicide. "The suffering of the women in this dark
land is indescribable," says an American woman missionary. Those Chinese
women that believe in the transmigration of souls hope "in the next world
to be anything but a woman."
Foreign women doctors, like the women missionaries, are bringing a little
cheer into these sad places. Most of these women are English or American.
The beginning of a real woman's rights movement is the work of the
Anti-Foot-Binding societies, which are opposing the binding of women's
feet. This reform is securing supporters among men and women.
For seventeen years there has existed a school for Chinese women. This was
founded by Kang You Wei, the first Chinese to demand that both sexes
should have the same rights. The women that have devoted themselves during
these seventeen years to the emancipation of their sex must often face
martyrdom. Tsin King, the founder of a semimonthly magazine for women, and
of a modern school for girls, met death on the scaffold in 1907 during a
political persecution directed against all progressive elements.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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