Status of Women in Ancient Japan

1. Status of Women in Ancient Japan By: Gracie Wang, Amy Liu, and Andrew Wang

2. The important questionwhat was the status of women in Heian Japan?Remember to think about it. It’s very important.

3. What was the status of women in Heian Japan? • The status of a woman in Heian Japan In the early feudal period was significantly lower than the status of a man, like many other countries in the past and present. • According to the “Three Obediences”, “When she is young, she obeys her father; when she is married, she obeys her husband; when she is married, she obeys her husband; when she is widowed, she obeys her son.“ As usual, the status of a woman was lower than a man’s, but a woman did have a range of rights depending on their class and family.

4. Peasant Women • The lives of peasant women was very different from the lives of women in the upper classes. About 99.9 % of Japan was made up of peasants. Women worked alongside men in a rough equality and had some control over household decisions. They held some property rights, including rights of inheritance and divorce, although they could not remarry. • Differing from aristocrats, peasant women often wore their hair short for easier maintenance and, since families needed their hands for labor, they married late, usually to someone in their own village or group of villages. Farmers only took one wife. As time went on peasant women lost much of their independence due to the feudal Japan age. Peasant women were more equal to peasant men than upper class women to upper class men. They had different rules and were very different.

5. What did Heian women do? • Samurai women were expected to exhibit loyalty, bravery, and take on the duty of revenge. As her warrior husband was often absent, the samurai wife also had important duties at home. Her responsibility was the food and all the household supplies. She oversaw the harvesting of crops, managed all the servants, and took over all financial business in times of disorder. The woman of the family was important and respected in family decisions and educated the children with morale. Respecting one's husband and family and bearing a male child became this ideal woman's most important tasks. • In wartime women sometimes had to defend their homes. Trained in weaponry, women carried a dagger in their sleeves or sashes and could throw with deadly aim. The naginata, a long, curved sword, was considered the weapon most suitable for women. So basically, the woman did the housework and participated a lot in family.

6. Summary Being a woman in Heian Japan was very different from the lives most women live today. In Heian Japan, women had to respect men highly, and to not give birth to a male child was like a disgrace to the family because the family name would not carry on. Women were expected to do most of the housework (if they did not live in a high class), cook, and sew while their husbands were busy being warriors.In addition, women also had to give their children a sense of loyalty to the way of the samurai.

7. Pictures