Should a divorce take place, the legal system moved in to assure a fair settlement….First, the husband and wife each took back whatever property they had contributed at the time of marriage. Second, any additional property that had accrued during the marriage was divided between them: two-thirds to the husband, one-third to the wife. In this way, the woman became financially independent, did not have to return to her own family, and might even be considered a good prospect for a second marriage (Ward 7).The division of property was important because the women were allowed to have their own lives after marriage. Ancient Egyptian women were not a complete dependant on their husbands, she could own her own property, and she could make money on her own. Independent women could survive in ancient Egypt.
Model paper #1: This paper, presented on the day we discussed modern East Asia, received an A.
During the revolutionary period in China from 1921 to 1934, although there
were undercurrents of an actual feminist movement, according to Kay Ann Johnson
in Women, the Family & Peasant Revolution in China, women’s progress
resulted more as a necessity of the war than the leadership’s commitment to
emancipate women. Furthermore, when tension arose between men and women, the
leadership usually appeased men over women. By not discussing the mentality
of the political parties and the dynamics of the war, Hughes and Hughes’ critique
lacks an explanation of the underlying motives that drove these parties to
sometimes support women and other times reject women’s interests. Hughes
and Hughes explain that “male educators and members of the KMT now proclaimed
Chinese women emancipated” (H&H 237). However, Johnson’s critique paints
quite a different and more complex emancipation.
The philosophies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reflected undertones
of feminist thought and consideration. The CCP’s ideology developed in the
early twentieth century as a result of a radical intellectual movement in
urban areas composed of disillusioned students and professors. The CCP did
recognize women’s progressive demands and desires for equal rights. In 1922,
at the Second National Congress, the Party established the Women’s Department
which aided women’s revolutionary political activity (Johnson 41). The Manifesto
of the Second Congress responded to women’s groups such as the Woman Suffrage
Alliance and the Alliance for the Women’s Rights Movements by including objectives
such as “the limited right to vote for all workers and peasants, regardless
of sex, [and] protection for female and child labor” (Johnson 41). Hughes
and Hughes do not overlook women’s voice during this period between 1921 to
1934; “women’s emancipation was an essential part of the reform program of
Chinese intellectuals” (H&H 236). Hughes and Hughes refer to the Guomindang
(KMT), another revolutionary party, that issued demands “for equality between
the sexes, permission for women to inherit property, [and] free marriage and
divorce” (H&H 236).
However, Hughes and Hughes do not fully explain the tensions and underlying
reasons for the CCP’s support of women. Johnson, on the other hand, argues
that from the onset, the “Party distrusted the feminist groups themselves
as elitist, bourgeois reformers” (Johnson 40). Therefore, any progress made
by the Party in favor of women was not true emancipation but emancipation
disguised under ulterior motives. Instead, the Party deemed women’s reforms
advantageous to their political strategy and position in the war. For example,
after 1928, the Communists’ policies were aimed at increasing women’s
activities that supported the war effort and the economy. It became important
for the Party to win women’s support because women were able to affect men’s
decisions. Sometimes women would attempt to dissuade their husbands or sons
from joining the army. Therefore, by gaining women’s support, men’s participation
in the army would increase. In addition, being able to teach women agricultural
duties greatly increased the availability of men for battle. Thus, a successful
war effort meant that the Party was able “to tap the resources of the entire
family unit. This made women a key link in war mobility and support” (Johnson
52). Hughes and Hughes only explain that “the party…ordered women members
to support the civil war with the Guomindang” (H&H 237). Hughes and Hughes
also comment that “women active[ly] participat[ed] in revolutionary movements”
(H&H 232). Although these statements are quite valid, they lack any analysis
of the actual dynamics between the revolutionary parties and women’s interests
as stated above.
Furthermore, whenever tension developed between gender groups, the men were
most often appeased rather than the women. For example, as a result of the
women’s movement, peasant men felt threatened. Peasant men normally bought
their wife in a traditional manner by paying bridewealth. This traditional
idea of marriage and family meant that men had some control over their “female
property” (Johnson 55). The new women’s movement threatened this traditional
power structure. Furthermore, men now worried that as a result of the Marriage
Regulations, their wife may file for divorce during their leave of absence
as a soldier (Johnson 60). Men argued that they should not have “to worry
about losing their wives” at the same time they were risking their lives
(Johnson 60). In the end, Mao Zedong, a leader of the communist movement,
“like most of the leaders,… sought to resolve conflict by downplaying, compromising
or moderating efforts to promote women’s struggle against traditional male
and family authority” (Johnson 60). Mao found himself in a bind; he was initially
a supporter of the women’s movement but also understood the male peasants’
desire to sustain dignity while at war. Mao ultimately supported the clause
against the divorce rights of army men’s wives (Johnson 60). Hughes and Hughes
refer to Mao Zedong as one who “supported women’s issues even before [he]
became communist” (H&H 236). Nothing further is mentioned of Mao and his
ultimate support of peasant men over women. Hughes and Hughes provide only
half the story of Mao Zedong. The eliminated half is quite significant since
it shows that women’s interests were often compromised to appease men’s wishes.
What were the goals of the political parties during this era, goals which
inherently affected women? The CCP strove to preserve unity; the Party issued
statements emphasizing the necessity of maintaining “a unified working class”
(Johnson 55). As a political entity, the CCP had invested interest in attaining
the approval of the masses in order to create unity, especially during war
times. In fact, “disunity seemed more immediate and crucial to leaders than
the long term cause of developing women’s political power or enforcing women’s
rights” (Johnson 49). Women’s rights fell second to the desires for political
power. Many times sustaining unity meant advocating a middle-ground policy
- appealing a little to this group and a little to that group. It is politically
wise therefore, for the CCP not to adhere one-hundred percent to the women’s
movement in fear of losing some support from other groups. For example, when
the CCP and KMT joined in alliance, the Central Women’s Department formed.
This organization, headed under Ho Hsiang-ning, aimed to bring women into
the revolutionary movement and aimed to obtain recognition of women’s rights
from the Nationalist government (Johnson 44). However, at the same time, men
felt increasingly threatened by women’s aggrandizement. Therefore, male peasant
leaders were incorporated into the women’s movement and “the result of this
effort to appease male fears was to place women’s organizations more closely
under the control of those most likely to oppose women’s efforts” (Johnson
47). Johnson explained that “while the Party generally espoused the democratic
demands of these [women’s] groups, it did not seek to establish organizational
ties with them” (41). Hughes and Hughes do not mention the tension and contradiction
that existed within the CCP as the Party aimed to gain the support of the
masses, including men and women. Therefore, by only reading Hughes and Hughes,
it is quite difficult to understand why, for example, the KMT turned on the
CCP, viciously attacked and raped women, and “began redefining women’s roles
[as] a return to the virtues of the family” (H&H 236). Without knowledge
of the struggle to attain men and women’s approval, such a vicious
turn of events seems quite startling.
Women’s situation and progress during the revolution was quite complex. Although
women did gain some freedoms, the freedoms gained were backed by the underlying
motives of the political parties to increase their power in the war. Thus,
it is difficult to assess whether women did attain emancipation since emancipation
under such a politically charged atmosphere seems rather tainted. In addition,
when conflict arose between men and women, politics usually supported male
interests. Hughes and Hughes do not fully illustrate the complex motives
that drove these parties to either support or abandon women’s interests in
order to maintain political unity. Thus, it is problematic to only read Hughes
and Hughes critique because it lacks an in-depth discussion of the complex
dynamics during the revolution.
Works Cited
Hughes, Sarah Shaver and
Brady Hughes. Women in World History: Readings from 1500
to the Present. Vol 2. New York: M.E. Sharpe Inc., 1997.
Johnson, Kay Ann. Women,
the Family and Peasant Revolution in China. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Model paper #2: This paper, presented on the day we discussed women’s leadership in early Islam, received an A.
In the Hughes’ text, Women in World History: Volume 1, the chapter
on Middle Eastern women focuses on how Islam affected their lives. Almost
immediately, the authors wisely observe that “Muslim women’s rights have
varied significantly with time, by region, and by class” (152). They continue
with the warning that “there is far too much diversity to be adequately described
in a few pages.” However, I argue that there is essential information and
insight on said topic that the authors have failed to include, as well as
areas of discussion with incomplete analyses. I will use Leila Ahmed’s book,
Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate, as
well as her essay entitled “Early Islam and the Position of Women: The Problem
of Interpretation,” to cite the shortcomings of the text.
After the first part of the Hughes chapter on Middle Eastern Muslim women,
the emphasis shifts, from Quranic doctrine regarding women to how Muslim law
and scholarship have interpreted the Quran’s direct admonitions to women.
However, this shift is unfortunately subtle. The authors fail to make a
clear distinction between the Quran, a sacred text believed to be the verbatim
word of God; and Muslim law, which was formulated by (male) Muslim jurists
who consulted the Quran and whose consensus was later declared infallible
(Ahmed 58). Such a distinction is necessary because the Quran itself is vastly
different from a legal document; Ahmed observes in “Early Islam and the Position
of Women” that “Quranic precepts consist mainly of broad, general propositions
chiefly of an ethical nature, rather than specific legalistic formulations”
(59). Indeed, the Quran’s “ethical injunctions” are open to “radically different
interpretations” (62), whereas
Muslim law is the result of such interpretation.
In her essay, Ahmed relies chiefly on the development and eventual permanence
of Muslim law to support her thesis, which is that “the process of the creation
of Islamic law” must be examined in order to subvert or equalize modern gender
roles and gender-specific laws in Muslim societies (71). While the Hughes
text is clearly written with a broader goal in mind, the authors are nevertheless
providing an incomplete picture by deemphasizing the effects of the legal
codification of patriarchy and domination. The authors briefly refer to Muslim
law and its divine infallibility, but they say only that “Muslim law required
women to remain in seclusion and to be veiled. . .in public, [but] in practice
women found ways to gain considerable control over their lives in spite of
these restrictions” (162).
There are many more laws regarding Muslim women, some of which have been interpreted
as only superficially positive or negative (Ahmed 63), but how most Muslim
women responded to them is not adequately addressed in the text. In her book,
Ahmed comments on “the power of suppression that the chroniclers [of early
Islam]. . .had”: “there is no record of the reactions of Muhammad’s wives
to [veiling and seclusion], a remarkable silence given their articulateness
on various topics” (56). This is a very important point, both because it
reminds us of history’s traditional exclusion of women’s perspectives and
because it stresses the moral autonomy of Muslim women, even as they were
deprived of legal autonomy.
Huda Lufti’s lengthy passage on women in Cairo and Misr is useful in illustrating
the discrepancies between law and practice, but its focus on two Egyptian
cities is too narrow; the reader should not read the complaints of Ibn al-Hajj
and conclude that Muslim law is easily bypassed and that most Muslim women
are able to “buck the system.” In fact, the text almost enables this type
of generalization by being overly optimistic and by not offering descriptions
of the conditions of Muslim women in less flexible locations and times,
such as the Abbasid dynasty in Iraq. On the other hand, in Women and Gender
in Islam, Ahmed focuses on Abbasid upper-class society in order to identify
“the assumptions about women and the relations between the sexes silently
informing the texts and interpretations of Islam” (69).
In her excerpt in the text, Nikki Keddie writes that “we should be aware of
how much breaking... of Quranic admonitions there have been throughout Muslim
history” (155). She later concludes that “in general the Quran was followed...
when it was not inconvenient [for] the patriarchal family to do so, and not
followed when it was.” What is never addressed, however, is the difficulty
of upholding one “true” interpretation of the Quran (Ahmed 64). If Keddie
were to admit to this difficulty, she would not have been able to make the
above conclusion quite so neatly.
The Hughes text oversimplifies Quranic interpretation, thus placing more responsibity
for the disenfranchisement of Muslim women squarely on the Quran than is
perhaps warranted or fair. Ahmed argues that “interpretation is of necessity
part of every act of reading or of inscribing a text” (63); interpretations
of the Quran by orthodox Muslims, Muslim lawmakers, and resistance movements
are various, with varying implications for women.
One example of this is the long-standing debate over the fundamental function
of the Quran: should Muslims give primacy to the ethical dimension of Muhammad’s
teachings, or should they “view the regulations and practices put into effect
by Muhammad as... binding on all Muslims” (58)? Orthodox Muslims chose the
latter method of interpretation, but alternative movements favored embracing
Islam’s “broader spiritual message” and saw regulations set by Muhammad as
specific to his society and not of permanent relevance to his followers (65).
Thus, the Sufi movement, choosing to embrace Islam’s ethical egalitarianism
(58), included women among their spiritual leaders (66). The Sufi woman Rabi’a
al-’Adawiyya is particularly
notable, the mention of whom is noticeably missing from the Hughes text. In
fact, the text seems to solely focus on women within orthodox Muslim societies,
and thus is further weakened by neglecting other important interpretations
of the message of Islam and the role of these interpretations in gender interactions.
The Hughes text makes a valiant effort to outline the experiences of women
in early Islam within the limited space of one chapter. However, in general,
it suffers from either being too broad or too particular in its choice of
excerpts and areas of emphasis. In contrast, Leila Ahmed analyzes representations
and mores of Muslim women in different social and religious contexts in
order to draw conclusions about their effect on women’s--and men’s in relation
to women’s--status, in earlier periods of Islam, as well as the further-reaching
implications they have had for modern Muslim societies.
Works Cited
Ahmed, Leila. Women
and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven and
London:
Yale University Press, 1992.
Ahmed, Leila. “Early Islam
and the Position of Women: The Problem of Interpretation.” In Women in
Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender, ed. Nikki
R. Keddie and Beth Baron.
New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1991.
Hughes, Sarah Shaver,
and Brady Hughes. Women in World History. Vol. 1. Armonk, N.Y., and
London:
M.E. Sharpe, 1995.