Chapter 5: Eurasian Social Hierarchies Documents

The documents at the end of chapter 5 discussed the oppression of women from the political and social atmospheres in the Classical era. Two documents has stood out the most to me, "History of Rome" and "How Sad It Is to Be a Woman."

In the "History of Rome" by Livy, he describes the situation during Hannibal's conquest on the Italian Peninsula in the Second Punic War. As resources were needed for the war effort, women were restricted from using luxury goods by Roman law. However, twenty years after the war, women demanded the repeal of the law. The law restricted women from wearing colorful dresses, using horse carriages in the city or a town within a mile unless for a religious festival, and owning more than an ounce of gold. Women were furious and started to protest for the repeal of the law, along with some of their husbands. The document is interesting because it discusses the perspective from Marcus Porcius Cato, a supporter of the Roman law. His main argument focuses on the "superior" man who should be dominant over women. He even goes further by explaining the concept that giving women an inch of breathing room to repeal the law would jeopardize men in the social and political life. After reading this article, I see elements of our modern social and political elements because women protested for their rights and were granted to them in a republic form of government. It is surprising that women were successful, especially in a word well before the 1920s movement for women's rights.

The document "How Sad It Is to Be a Woman" was written by Fu Xuan, a male poet in China who grew into wealth through his masterful literary talents. Before he was wealthy and successful, Xuan was impoverished and sympathized for women in a very harsh world. He describes the sadness for a girl when it is born because the family receives no honor. Xuan also uses the example of women bowing their heads like they are slaves or servants. However, he differentiates the servants and being a woman when saying "She must humble herself even to the servants." This quotation illustrates women being almost outcasts in the Chinese social life and could arguably described as "dirt". After reading this passage, the author did a wonderful job at exemplifying women in Chinese society and even in the Classical era as a whole. Women were poorly mistreated and deserved a better life than what Xuan had described in his passage. It is interesting to note that Xuan, a man, had gained prominence for his poems by describing the unacceptable social oppression of women in a male dominant culture.