Women in the olden days-reference to Emily of Emerald Hill Commentary

From Yan Peng's Blog:



After reading Emily of Emerald Hill. I found out that in the olden days, it is very male-dominated. Men had the most power and women were nothing. women are expected to look after the family, take care of the family and basically do whatever the men what them to do. In Emily of Emerald Hill(EEH), Doris was scolded for reading and her mother told her that "when you get married you must know how to cook and look after your family". It was the roles of women.

In the olden days, every family wanted a male child instead of a female child. This is especially so in rural areas where parents had little or no education. The male child could help the family in farming and supporting the family where the female child were seen as useless. The rural families are also bigger compared to the families in urban areas.

Women in the past have extremely low status, even in the 21st century, some women were not treated with respect especially in Pakistan.In the rural areas, women are like slaves subject to drudgery. They are there just to obey their fathers, brothers and husbands. They do not have the right to decide about themselves because women are considered as foolish creatures according to the dominant social and cultural norms of Pakistan. Likewise marriage is also a sort of trade between different families both in the rural and urban areas. They are highly vulnerable to violation of their rights to life. A woman's right to liberty is restricted in the name of modesty, protection and prevention of immoral activity.

In todays time, situation are generally much better. We should treat everyone equally with respect.





I felt that Yan Peng put a lot of effort into writing this blog post. He does think from the women's point of view and it makes me realize that for those of us who are male, we are fortunate.But in the past, women had to endure hardships. The chauvinistic world that they used to live in. Now, everything is about gender equality.

However, why can women cut their hair short and wear pants but males cannot have long hair or wear dresses?




http://defendantsofthecows.blogspot.com/2010/08/women-in-olden-days-reference-to-emily.html