THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN CHINA 7 1 



THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN CHINA 



By Dr. L. PEARL BOGGS 



URBANA, ILLINOIS 



SOME sage has said "A nation stands as high as its women." In 

 making up an estimate of China at a time when she is earnestly 

 desiring recognition as a republic, it may not be out of place to consider 

 the position of women with a view to judging the chances which the 

 new government has for stability. 



Every one is familiar with the story and the personality of the late 

 Empress Dowager, who, for nearly half a century, swayed the destiny 

 of China's 400,000,000 people at perhaps the most critical times in 

 their country's history. It was during the first years of her regency 

 that the formidable Taiping rebellion was finally put down, thus 

 insuring the integrity of the empire from within. It was also during 

 her term of power that China suffered many humiliating experiences 

 at the hands of foreign countries, including Japan, but nevertheless 

 China as an empire was left practically intact. During her last term 

 of regency, the government committed itself to modern western educa- 

 tion and to constitutional government. It was a powerful personality 

 that could hold the empire to the old way when a vigorous young 

 party was striving to uproot old customs and law, and in turn could 

 bring the old conservative party to heel when the change to new ways 

 was finally determined upon. This could not have happened where 

 women have no rights, honor or privileges. 



What the empress did in her exalted station, any strong woman 

 can do in whatever station she may be born. We hear, therefore, of 

 women occasionally becoming the head of a family or clan, for some- 

 thing of the old-style patriarchal family is the prevalent form in China 

 and is composed of grandparents, married sons and their families, and 

 perhaps also younger brothers or cousins. The three submissions of 

 which one hears so much in the orient, means that a woman must 

 submit to the authority of the head of the family, be he her father, 

 husband or son. A woman does not usually become the head of a 

 family unless she is the widow of the former head and she rises to this 

 position only if she is the strongest personality by far in the group. 

 The writer does happen to know a forceful young Chinese woman who 

 is known all over the country side as " the Christian girl who runs a 

 farm alone and is the head of a family." Before her, the grandmother 

 had been the ruler of the clan and had been honored by the erection 

 of a " pailow," or three stone arches, by order of the emperor. 



But in the main it is due to her position as the mother and grand- 

 mother of sons that she is honored, and every Chinese woman prays 



