Cultural Relativism Vs. Ethnocentrism

My thesis is that women in China have not progressed, and that falsely believing that sort of thinking is detrimental and dangerous to the furthering of women's rights in the country. I also argue that despite policy changes that should benefit women, the ingrained culture of Confucianism has prevented the policies from having teeth. For this paper, several works were used. Most beneficial was the book Personal Voices by Emily Honig and Gail Hershatter. Furthermore, the reading of several articles in the Beijing Review, China's national English news weekly, helped to created an overall understanding of the issues that affect Chinese women today. Scholars could research every last document printed in the world regarding this matter and it would still be very difficult to come up with a solution that would truly benefit and protect Chinese women. Many people seem to believe that the role of Chinese women has improved greatly. They believe this to be true since there are now a handful of millionaire Chinese women. They believe this to be true because more women are graduating from university. They even look back historically and claim Chinese women live exceedingly better lives in the present because they are no longer bound to their husband, to foot binding or to their homes. However, as my thesis implies, women still live horribly unequal and degrading lives in China as they do in almost every nation in the world including the United States. I will begin by briefly mentioning women's working conditions pre-Communism and then focus mostly on women's working conditions after the late 1970s, which is when the Chinese economy opened up and where I believe the problems all started. This is essentially from a Marxist-Feminist approach so I believe that the reason that women's working conditions are still ghastly is due to the capitalist economic system that favors the wealthy and powerful, and exploits the poor and disenfranchised.

It is imperative that scholars approach the questions related to the status of Chinese women with a very specific perspective. What this means is that it is necessary to be culturally relevant when studying these issues. Western feminists consider the status of Chinese women to be deplorable, while many Chinese women think that their lives have improved significantly after the Cultural Revolution. In fact, many feminists and scholars have contributed writing on the matter. For example, in the journal article Have We Got a Theory for You! Feminist Theory, Cultural Imperialism and the Demand for the Woman's Voice, the writers María C. Lugones and Elizabeth V. Spelman concede that feminist thought does not encompass all women's ideas around the world. This is to say that western feminism and eastern feminism are vastly different. In fact, there are different schools of thought regarding feminism within even western feminism; thoughts related to race and ethnicity. A Latina-American woman does not see the status of women in society the same way a Caucasian-American woman does and vice versa. The fact that we are reading reports of China in the English language even thwarts the availability of a real understanding of the nation. The majority of Chinese women do not have a scholarly grasp on the written English language and therefore there is little feminist scholarly writing done by average Chinese women themselves. We must be careful to apply Western values and thoughts to judgments of western and Chinese culture. I remind the reader that I write this paper as a Caucasian-American man, and therefore truly could never have a complete grasp on the topic.

Historically, as a Confucian based society, women were reduced to only a handful of ascribed roles like mother, wife and maid. Women were not taught to read or write, and on very rare occasion attended schooling. Whilst men of the family were schooled in a number of subjects, young girls were taught the arts of sewing, cleaning and essentially were taught how to be virtuous (to give in to men). Women were not expected to physically leave their homes unless accompanied by men. In fact, any woman in public without a man was viewed as a prostitute or a whore. They did not travel to other towns or cities alone. Women did not choose who they married, and could not divorce or else their name would be ruined forever. Women were meant to serve men, and lacked any rights from a western perspective. Footbinding became a tradition in the eleventh century as a form of repression by men. Men saw small feet, often three inches in length, as aesthetically and sexually pleasing. From a western standpoint Chinese women have always been treated as second rate in society.

During the Cultural Revolution, policies began being enacted in China to better the lives of the women there. Honig and Hershatter write, "From the time the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949, its leaders firmly believes that paid employment outside the home was the key to liberating women and building a society based on genuine gender equality" (Honig, Hershatter 243). They go on to say, "In fact, the percentage of urban women employed outside the home was substantially higher than that in more Western capitalist countries, as well as other developing Asian states" (Honig, Hershatter 243). While it is true that woman during this time period, up until the late 1970s, that the majority of women still took low-skilled jobs, they still contributed vastly to the country. In addition, because of the Communist regime, those who attained jobs in the economy were given those jobs permanently. Much like a worker's union in the United States, it is nearly impossible to terminate someone's employment with a lot of reasonable cause to do so. The way that jobs were provided was through a central government, and workers were assigned to local work units in which they were granted a job by the government. Women were doing well in the type of work they were doing; transportation jobs paid well. They also received a reasonable pay since the Communist government put so much emphasis on bringing women up to men's standards in society. However, as my research and thesis indicate, Chinese history and culture continued to play an enormous role in the status of women. Women, thought politically thought of as equals, were still seen as the caretakers of the home, the cooks and those responsible for the children. Therefore, women's status in society regarding work was increased, but the vast majority of women continued to be burdened by housework and childcare which meant that women essentially carried two jobs since they normally received little to no help from their husbands.

According to Honig and Hershatter's academic work, there are three main issues with women and the workplace during the 1980s. The first major problem was that of women college graduates and the lack of positions that were available to these intelligent, capable and qualified individuals. The second problem is that it was often difficult for women to maintain their positions once they were in them, unlike their permanent jobs pre-economic openness. Thirdly, and an ongoing issue for women everywhere, is the issue of housework and who does it in the household. Along with the authors, I argue that in the late 1970s, women's status took an expected step back when China opened up its doors economically to the western world. Upon enabling free-market economics to rule the land, women were simply reduced to another commodity or another expense. Neo-liberal economics refute that fact that humans are humans, and only see one thing: money. Private enterprises began popping up all over China, and therefore wage regulations and other workplace rules were easier to be ignored since the government has had little discretion over private companies. Those who argue in favor of these sorts of economic policies say that it leads to more efficient production and therefore better quality of products available to the citizens of the globe. In other words, companies are looking to profit as much as possible therefore trying to make the production of items as cheap as possible. This therefore leads to exploitation of workers in factories.

In addition to the common practice of paying workers as little as possible, specifically in China since women's roles in the household are so ingrained, many business owners have been reluctant to hire women for fear they will not be as efficient in the workplace since they will be tired from household chore work. Technology, or lack thereof, also played an enormous role in women not advancing in the 1980s. According to Honig and Hershatter, "Unaided by the modern conveniences to which many Western women were accustomed-from vacuum cleaners and washing machines to food processors- they found the tasks of shopping, cooking, and cleaning more labor-intensive and time-consuming" (Honig, Hershatter 253). In addition, the western view of a supermarket did not exist so therefore someone in the household, generally the woman, had to go to separate stores to buy meat, bread, fruit and so on. Therefore, shopping took hours, and sometimes took entire days due to the long lines on the weekends since there was no time during the week because people were working. Although men did occasionally help in households with shopping and cleaning, they were unfortunately told they suffered from qiguanyan, which closely translates to the term "whipped" in English. The friends of many men looked down upon them if they helped the women with the household work since men are supposed to be "stronger" than women and therefore should not answer to women's requests or needs. Housework, and the associated view that negatively contributed to women advancing in Chinese society.

Another major problem was that the country was not accustomed to women graduating from college and therefore being qualified for important and prestigious positions. They were kept out of many positions simply because of their gender. One obvious such case appeared in China Women's News. They "reported the case of a woman who had graduated from the Northeast Industrial College in 1983. She had achieved outstanding grades, had been elected a 'three good' student (good in studies, physical fitness and moral character) throughout her years at the college and had received honors for her graduation thesis. Members of a laser research institute, after reading her thesis, declared that 'this kind of talent is truly rare' and did everything in their power to have her assigned to their institute. When they learned that the student in question was female, however, they changed their minds and refused to hire her" (Honig and Hershatter (249). This is a blatant show of the negativity associated with women in the workplace despite being qualified. A woman could earn excellent marks at university, be extremely intelligent and well mannered and still be denied a job on the basis that she is a woman. Employers have been reluctant to hire women since they run the risk of getting pregnant or being tired from doing household chores. When the Minister of Education, He Dongchang, was asked about this sort of issue, he "lamented that the phenomenon of work units refusing to hire women was part of a much larger social problem of discrimination against women, and this could not be solved in isolation" (Honig and Hershatter). This adds to the argument that women's status in society is difficult to be changed through policy, and that an entire society has to be swayed which could take several generations to do.

Since so many people moved to urban areas at the 80s, this led to mass unemployment, which made women's jobs even more expendable. Since China relies so heavily on its manufacturing sector most jobs were found in factories. In the 80s many policies were put into place that seem to be disguised as protecting women but seem to actually be quick fixes to the economy. Women were all but totally banished from factory type work. Who is to say that women needed protection? Who is to say that women needed protecting by way of being terminated, expelled and banned from their former positions? "It is difficult to ascertain whether women themselves appreciated the concern for their health and welcome the change in jobs" (Honig and Hershatter 251) Women were hard-pressed to maintain a job because of these new policies, which in this writer's opinion only added to the economic success of those already holding assets adding to their "efficiency" in their factories. Some words about the status of factories and the way in which they are run will come later in this paper. I write cynically about the economics since several prominent economists during this time period suggested that women just be taken out of the job market completely, which would therefore make unemployment seem like less of a problem. Essentially, they where treated as subhuman and burdens to the economy rather than humans that should be assimilated into it.

Nowadays in China, the Confucian ideals that have dictated Chinese culture for hundreds of years continue to do so. While many women do hold jobs in the country, most of the jobs in which they work relate to something women are naturally "good at". For example, walking into any factory in the country, which produces silk, shoes and other goods, the vast majority of the workers will be women. At that, most of the workers will be young women since they still have the energy to work, and do not have families yet which allow them to dedicate all their time and energy to the company in the eyes of the owners. It is now common knowledge that western corporations like Nike and Adidas use Chinese women to produce their shoes that they sell expensively. The Chinese government since opening its economy to the west in the late 1980s is supportive of this system both in policy and practice. These are not your typical factories, like those during the Industrial Revolutions in the United States, France or England. These are modern day factories complete with dormitories for workers, cafeterias and are generally fenced in complexes that are off limits to the media and often local government. The best part is that normally these complexes become tax free zones, meaning the western company nor either government is responsible for paying taxes despite the fact that they are profiting heavily. In addition, since these locations are so secretive, workers can be paid lower than minimum wage. This is another example of how policy and practice are certainly different things. Workers also are forced to work overtime though they receive no extra benefits and most pay for housing and food from their paychecks. While the real blame certainly should be placed on the shoe companies for paying workers lousy wages and providing extremely poor working conditions, it is also imperative that the Chinese government forget about dollars for a little while and focus on actually making sure the labor laws of the country are realized.

This may sound like a negative approach to the situation since on paper there have been many strides taken to better the lives of women in China. For example, the English language Beijing Review reports, "The year 2009 saw unprecedented media coverage of many issues central to women's rights. Attention was focused on several social problems commonly afflicting women-employment discrimination, domestic violence and sexual violence. The China Women's News was at the forefront of covering the issues most concerning women" (Xiaolei). This articles notes that in the year 2009, over 4,000 cases of trafficking were uncovered, which is a higher number than in previous years. However, many human rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that that number is not even close to the number of abuses actually occurring. Human rights groups recognize the lack of access that women tend to have the economy and realize that the population is well over one billion therefore 4,000 is a rather low number for these types of cases.

Returning to the original notion of the debate between ethnocentrism and cultural relativity, Lisa Rofel in her work Liberation Nostalgia and a Yearning for Modernity, believes that "the answer is not for Euro-American feminists to cease writing and speaking. As Chandra Mohanty has insisted, western feminist work on women in third world countries is essential for combating western solipsism" (Rofel 247). I agree to an extent, but how can we sure that we are not injecting or indoctrinating our own preconceived notions and beliefs of what a women's role is? The answer quite simply is that it is impossible. Solipsism is impossible to escape, and despite people insisting they can accept others' beliefs, it is still entirely difficult to fundamentally dismantle and change someone's existing theoretical position. I believe that people within each community most decide what is best for that specific community. My research has shown that many Chinese women are content, and feel like they are doing the right thing by tending to housework and the children. I relate this to reason why Americans have not revolted against the government in mass numbers for things like healthcare despite the fact that many consider it a right. The truth is our culture has taught us that things like healthcare are privileges and we have accepted it. The Swiss or Swedish would say that we are withholding basic rights from our citizens while a number of Americans view it as normal. This could be said about Chinese woman as well. In fact in Rofel's article, the woman she comes most into contact with is quite proud of her job and of the factory in which she works. "One point on which she held especially strong convictions was the liberation of women in China. 'Women and men are equal now in China. Women can go out and work just like men. Women have been liberated" (Rofel 227). While to a western feminist's ears the word "liberated" may seem pretty strong and excessive, there are a great number of women who believe those exact same words throughout China.

We have to remember that women in China have in fact, though slowly, achieved successes in role in society. Since the Cultural Revolution, at the very least women's, and men's, ideologies have changed in favor of women's rights. Ideology and culture are the two defining things in achieving better rights for women; policy does not do enough. As is shown through my research, the opening of the country economically to the west, and to the United States and American corporations has reversed partially the great feats of the Cultural Revolution. Despite, vast improvements in policies regarding women and working rights, neo-liberal economics has trumped rights much like it has done in many other countries throughout the world including right here in the United States. Therefore it is important to look at all aspects of a society before we are to make judgments regarding whether it's doing things innately "right" or "wrong". In the case of China it is clear that policy improvements have been made but culturally there is still a lot of work to do to improve women's standards (at least from a western point of view). What is important is to find out exactly how the "average" Chinese woman feels. In fact, these sorts of things should be taken on a case-by-case basis to better achieve happiness for all citizens of the world.