Chapters 4, 5, 6

     Going through the readings I found that the status of women have changed from an equal to non-existence. By non existence, women were now seen as not an equal and seen as a child producer. From China to Roman, women started to form this reputation as someone who tends to the house, be obedient to men regardless of their age, child producers, and lastly become a slave through war.  Regardless of a woman’s status or how wealthy her family is, she will never be an equal. I find that quite amazing how it all changed from Paleolithic to the Eurasian era. Women were once praised as a gather or decision maker, but now seen as an object. For instance, Confucianism practiced more of the patriarchal approach. Confucius believed that life comes in opposites meaning men and women. They saw it as the form of the yang and yin. Yang defined as “masculine, strength, rationality which adds up to heaven like.”  On the other hand, yang was defined as “feminine, weakness, emotional, and more down to earth.” This gave the perspective that men should be seen more as a figure at home or in the public which carried the weight of superiority and the women seen as delicate creatures who should be domestic. There are “three obediences” that Confucianism highly believed that women should live by which are “women is subordinated to father, then husband, then son.”  This pretty much narrows it down on how life was life for women.  It’s sad to say that this quote has never changed throughout history.              
      Besides hearing the negative, some women did gain some political authority which caused hostility from male officials in China.   During the Tang Dynasty, elite women were now considered capable of handling legal and business affairs.  These women were even given credit to ride horses like men did which was a huge step. Women were starting to pave a road in China especially when the first female emperor took control. Emperor Wu took her reign and started too pushed for the improvement of women and their status. By just having a female ruler in China at the time was defying all laws since it went against Confucius. Emperor Wu received a lot push back and criticisms for her trying to push women to the front.  If female writer Ban Zhao was able to speak, I wonder if she would agree to have a female ruler or would it be bad taste to have one. One would think that Ban Zhao would disagree because her theory is that women should always be submissive to a male authority figure. Emperor Wu defies all of that since she is the main authority figure and the one controlling an empire. It’s a bit a peculiar that a well educate woman like Ban Zhao would be okay with being submissive and allowing her husband to have concubines on the side.  I would think that since Ban Zhao is so educated she would have fought for the status of women during the Han dynasty and demand her right as a woman.  Apparently that was not case because Ban Zhao was a firm believer in obedience to the authority male in any nature.