Just as the government of mainland China has undergone extensive change in the last 100 years, so have the women of China as they struggled to adapt to a changing political landscape. This paper will review the book Personal Voices (1988) by Emily Honig and Gail Hershatter, and discuss some of the societal changes, as well as personal changes, that many women have gone through from pre-Liberation China to 1980s People's Republic of China (the time period covered in the book). Specifically this discussion will focus on the different roles that women have in society and how those may or may not have changed, as well as what progress has been made in establishing women's equality, and what setbacks that women have undergone in relation to equality and their respective roles.
According to the Honig and Hershatter, when the Chinese reflect on their history there are three eras to contemplate: feudal, or pre-Liberation China, Mao and the Cultural Revolution, and the current period of experimental market economy and working towards the Four Modernizations (agriculture, industry, science and technology, and defense)(1988). In addition, China is a society where the roles of a person are as much a community decision as they are a private decision, despite the move towards more private freedoms. It is in this milieu that Chinese women must find their way as workers, intellectuals, mothers, wives, and contributors to the well-being of the state (1988).
In pre-Liberation China, for example, the Confucian, virtuous woman was like a child in that she should neither be seen nor heard; compliant to her husband and husband's family as she worked to create a better household for her spouse and children. Therefore, while she should always be submissive and feminine, she should not over adorn herself, assert herself, or in any way bring negative attention to the family, especially if she were the daughter-in-law in a household. In addition,...