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Gender Roles

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Another relationship that receives great attention is that between kin and kin within the family. Confucian ideals claim that the younger children are subordinates of the eldest children. Valued higher than the eldest child in a wealthier family, however, is the most intellectually gifted child. According to Sing, the son or daughter would be the pride of the family. For those children of a peasant family, it was almost always the younger children, not the eldest that had the opportunity to excel in school because Sing claims the oldest had a “sense of duty” to fulfill and wanted to provide for the family. Sing believes that, although this environment could have fostered jealousy and hatred between brothers, it actually fostered a sense of …show more content…

By the time that girls were married, a clear socioeconomic divide between the genders was evident. He describes a life of clear subordination and lack of freedom for women, while men could do almost anything they pleased without repercussions. Women in Chinese families could “practice nothing” without the consent of her husband and remained a legal minor underneath the guardianship of her husband. However, once if a wife outlived her husband, she inherited her husband’s property, rank and titles. She had the right to mother her children and serve as a mistress of the family. The extent of a women’s rights ended there. Even though the rights of a woman were extremely limited after childhood, as Sing concluded, the wives of men were not always unhappy with their situation.
Levey believe that interpretations of gender differences in Chinese families are exaggerated. He explains that life for men and women, especially during their childhood, is not always miserable period driven by gender division like many historians, including Baker, claim. Through Levey’s work, he discovered that children, regardless of gender, were welcomed into the family, unless the economic situation of the family doesn’t permit. Nevertheless, Levey does acknowledge that male is the desired gender of a

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