Women's Roles In The Qing Dynasty

In the works that we came across during the quarter, women identity and social status depend on the male figures of their lives rather than on their individual self. Women in the Qing Dynasty, like women from previous ruling period were divided into three main categories of mother, wife and daughter. When she was little, a girl life and future are depending on her father and his reputation in society; everyone part of the outer sphere refer to her as someone’s daughter because her father is the main male figure of her life at the moment. As a child, a daughter is often spoiled by her parents as a counter measurement for her rigorous journey as a wife and as a mother in the future. Daughters were giving more freedom and flexibility during their
For the women in the palace, China developed methods of recruitment directly from the masses, following multiple screening and competition, but also relied on recommendation and introduction. A lower status female chance of entering the emperor’s bed chamber is much slimmer than an elite female due to her lack of recognition and support of power from family. The lower class female needs to possess extraordinary beauty and talent in order to be consider for the screening to become imperial wives and concubines. These female figures were however, mostly courtesans and prostitutes, which will be discuss more in a later part of this paper. On the other hand, for the elite class, the selection of aristocratic and other imperial wives was commonly matter of negotiation and arranged marriage between the imperial family and prospective families, some of whom pressured the king or prince to marry their daughter (Celestial 241). These types of arrangement were more similar to a political strategy rather than marriage itself because both sides will gain something from the relationship while treating the female as an object for the market. Her family will gain favor and honor as a loyal member’s in-laws, while the king or prince will gain the family’s influence and support to further power in court. There was also a shift in power for throne succession during the Qing dynasty. Before the Qing dynasty, the heir for the throne can only be the King’s first wife, the Empress, son. However, the Qing emperors attempted to demolish alliances among the royal family and officials through imperial wives and concubines by creating a new succession system “in which the heir to the throne was chosen only on the death of an emperor and irrespective of the rank of his mother” (Ropp#). This rule was supposed to prevent powerful alliance that