Positive And Negative Ways Essay Question

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Question 4
Socialist policies brought gender equality that affected women in both positive and negative ways. Before the socialist policies, women had a lower status than men in society. They were required to serve and remain obedient especially to their husbands. However, socialist policies sought to change this narrative by empowering women to do the activities that were designated for males. In order to demonstrate the positive and negative implications of gender equality, this essay contrasts the lives of two empowered women; Naihua Zhang and Lu Wenting.
Growing up as a girl, Zhang was not conscious of her gender. Because of that, she did not have limitations on the occupations she could choose. She could become anything from an engineer to a pilot; occupations that were preserved for men before the gender equality policies. The other female students in her class during their middle school life had the same ambitions. None of them indicated wanting to become a wife or a mother. During the Cultural Revolution, the quotation by Mao that “Time has changed. Men and women are the same” were common (Zhang, 2001). As a result, women could undertake duties that were traditionally done by men. For instance, Zhang’s commune well drilling team was composed of young girls. These girls worked on heavy equipment and moved in the villages drilling boreholes. In essence, due to the emphasis on gender equality because of socialist policies, girls were empowered to pursue their dreams.
Despite the empowerment created by gender equality, the same had negative implications on the life of Wenting. In At Middle Age (1982), Wenting is a forty-two-year-old female surgeon. As the film opens, Wenting is completing 18 years at Beijing hospital in 1961. Wenting is skilled and dedicated to her profession. She is an example of women in China who have managed to pursue their careers like their counterpart males. However, in 1979, Wenting is unable to balance her family-work life. She is married with two children and cannot find time to be with her family due to work pressure. Wenting feels that her work has caused her to neglect her family especially the children. Her marriage is failing because she no longer has a passion for it. This would not be the case if she were not a career woman because she would have more time to stay with the children. Concisely, ge...