Women And Family In Rural Taiwan

1550 Words7 Pages
Women’s domestic role and her reproductive system shape the experience of girls and women in the village of Peihotien, and in the small Chinese village seen in the movie “Small Happiness”. The vast difference between the treatment of females and males are presented from birth throughout all aspect of everyday life in both the book and the movie, organized through the patrilineal and uterine family structural systems. The main goal for a woman is to give birth to a son, and even from an early age a girl is taught the importance of a male, through the inequitable treatment of her and her brothers. In these societies, males assume they are superior to females, but similarly females from early age also start to believe they are inferior to males. In the book Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan, Margery Wolf discusses how girls are treated as burdens as soon as they are born. The inferiority of females compared to males can be seen early through the mother because “if the child was born a boy, only the mother was unclean,” (57) whereas if the child was a girl, both the mother and child would be considered unclean and dangerous to others. It is strange how a society which revolves around giving birth to a son considers the actual act of giving birth dirty and unclean. What seems like an occasion for celebration and support for the mother who just gave birth; she is shunned from the outside world for a month, even going to the extreme of carrying an umbrella or wearing a large hat if she absolutely has to leave her house. Even if a woman has fulfilled her duty as a female to give birth to a son, she is still not congratulated or given the respect as she has done only what she is expected to do as a female. Poverty is the main reason why females are considered inferiors to males. Since men work in the farms they are the main breadwinners for each family. Thus, the
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