HIST 106g Study Guide - Final Guide: Fudan University, Suicide, Sex Selection
Document Summary
The social structures and social roles we inhabit always entail a mixture of empowerment and restriction. This has been extremely evident in the many glimpses we have had into the lives and roles of women in chinese history this semester. Young women whose weddings had not yet taken place sometimes refused to enter into another engagement after their fianc died. Instead, they would move to their fianc "s home and serve his parents as a daughter-in-law. After marriage they typically become members of their husband"s family and cease to have responsibility for aging or ill parents: given strict family-size limitations and a preference for sons, girls have become unwanted in. Some view such a policy as disrespectful of pregnant women and discriminatory against them, as the policy forces some women to undergo an abortion. Poor health care and malnourished female babies are also the result of the combined effect of son preference and the one-child policy.
