Gender and Sex Roles1000 b.c.e. – 1250 c.e.

Rachel MallariApril 16, 2010Mr. KellyAPWH; Period 1

China – Qin, Han, and Zhou

•Downgraded the status and potential of women

• Agricultural civilizations were patriarchal • Husband determined conditions and

made decisions while the woman gave obedience to the male

India – 1600 B.C.E. – 535 C.E.•Dominance of husbands and fathers remained

strong A wife should worship her husband as a god

• As agriculture became better organized and improved technology reduced women’s economic contributions, the stress on male authority expandedWomen enjoyed hunting cultures

• Featured clever and strong-willed women’s status as wives and mothers, in contrast to China

Rome and Greece – 1000 B.C.E. – 476 C.E.

•Also patriarchal•Women played vital roles in farming and

artisan families • In the upper classes, women often

commanded great influence and power within a household; but in law and culture women were held inferior

• “The husband is the judge of his wife”

Abbasids – 700 C.E. – 1200 C.E.

• Lower class women farmed, wove clothing and rugs, or raised silkworms while rich women were allowed almost no career outlets beyond the home

• Women we raised to devote their lives to running a household and serving their husbands

Western Europe – 500 C.E. – 1450 C.E.

• Women in the West had higher status than their sister under Islam (less segregated in religious services) and less confined to the household

• urban women often played important roles in local commerce and even operated some craft guilds

•Women were not assured property rights•Patriarchal structures seemed to be

taking deeper root

China – Tang and Song•Position of women improved under the Tang

and early Song eras and then deteriorated steadily in the late Song

•Male-dominated hierarchy promoted by Confucius

• Women remained subordinate to men; practiced footbinding

•Opportunities for personal expression increasedTang women could wield considerable power at

the highest levels of Chinese society

Foot binding

Mongol gender roles – 1270s

•Women remained aloof from Chinese cultureRefused to practice footbinding Retained rights to property and control

within household and freedom to move about the town

they hunted; i.e. daughter of Kubilai’s cousins went to war

Africa in Atlantic Age - 1400• The enslavement of women was a central

feature of African society▫Excess of women led to polygamy▫The position of women was lowered in some

societies• Trans-Saharan slave trade concentrated on

women as concubines and domestic servants but the Atlantic slave trade focused on men

• African societies preferred to sell men and keep women and children as domestic slaves or extend kin groups

Early Latin America - 1450

•Sexual exploitation of Indian women and occasional alliances formed by the giving of concubines and female servants

•Slave owners exploited their female slaves or took slave women as mistresses, and then sometimes freed their mulatto children

•A mestizo who married a Spanish woman might be called white

Muslim Empires - 1450

•Akbar legally prohibited sati • Seclusion was more and more strictly

enforced for upper-class women, both Hindu and Muslim▫Muslim women rarely went from their

homes unveiled• The birth of a girl was increasingly seen

as an inauspicious event• Only the birth of a son was greeted with

feasting and celebrations