Women's Education in China.

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Introduction

The term 'globalization' has been used to define various aspects of global expansion in the past two decades. It has been associated with key areas of change, which have led to a marked transformation of the world order. At the level of the economy, globalization has been associated with the trend towards increasing economic liberalization such as freer trade and more deregulated labour, goods and financial markets. Since the establishment of People's Republic in 1949, China has been struggling for development. Great changes have taken place in the way that development is achieved and promoted.

As China develops its domestic economy rapidly in the world,the global economy has affected almost every area of Chinese social and economic policy, and the everyday lives of Chinese people. Also this effect of the economic reform has strongly influenced China's educational development. For a country, education is a very important because it develops human resources, improve productivity, and promote economic growth. Observing the changes in education, one of the most crucial phenomena to be considered is the participation of women in education. In China, a woman's education is one of the important indicators of a woman's social status, because a woman's employment and domestic status prospects depend heavily on the training and educational schemes through which she can acquire the relevant skills.

In this project, the focus will be on how the global economy has affected women's education in China. First, education for women in traditional China will be discussed. Second, women's education in modern China will be considered. After looking at these two aspects, a summary of the changes will be highlighted and commented on.

Women's Education in Traditional China

To understand women's traditional education and its development, we must initially look at the relationship between traditional moral thinking and women's role in history. According to The book of articles and word explanation, the original meaning of the word 'woman' was derived from the word 'submission'. It was thus obvious how Chinese women, for centuries, had internalized and accepted, without question, their subordination in society. The following extracts serve to illustrate how demeaning women's social position had been in traditional China-"The father is the god in the eyes of the son, so is the husband in the eyes of the wife"; "A woman treats her father as the god when single and treats her husband as the god when married"; and "Be obedient to your father before marriage, your husband after marriage and your son when the husband dies." These three quotations were known as the 'three obdieniences.' This hierarchy of control over women was tied to the traditional beliefs of Chinese society.
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For almost 3000 years, Chinese society was founded on the belief that 'the society must be dominated by man'. Women's behavior had been strictly governed by a moral code and certain social customs. The 'Husband as Guidance' rule thus dictates that the wife should yield totally to the wishes of her husband and that wholehearted devotion was expected. It should come as no surprise that docility and timidity were considered in the past to be great qualities in women and had also become the yardstick by which the success of a woman's education was crudely and arbitrarily measured.
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