Gender-role socialisation and social control in pre-modern China

In general terms, Chinese tradition encompasses Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. While Buddhism and Taoism may have enriched the Chinese religiosity and spirituality, Confucianism has mostly contributed in terms of moral principles and codes of conduct. The central doctrines of Confucianism are contained in "The Four Books" and "The Five Classics", which are loosely attributed to Confucius (551 BC-479 BC) and his disciples. The Four Books were considered the essence of education and law by all subsequent dynasties and pertained teachings of familial and social relations between ruler and subjects, father and son, husbands and wives, older and younger brothers, and friends. They taught the basic rites, rituals and proprieties to be a man, but had no explicit instructions for women.

The role of the family – The initial teachings of Confucian principles were conducted by mothers within the family. As boys grew older – family finances allowing – teachers were arranged for more advanced education. The accomplished learning of these doctrines was directly related to an achievement of officialdom, which meant financial security, family wealth and social prestige for a man. Consequently, excerpts were memorised, the texts were required readings in schools, and younger boys were taught to recite simplified versions.

For women, there came to be "Four Books for Women." The authorship of these four books is less ancient than those for men – some 1600 years – still their function was similar. Women in the palace read and expounded upon them, and poor and eventually ordinary women recited and memorised them. These women's teachings taught women to be submissive to their husbands, obedient to parents and parents-in-law, diligent at womanly work (cooking, cleaning and sewing), and never meddlesome in public affairs.

The role of the clan or extended family – Although most teachings about proper male or female conduct were instilled at home, the extended family and clan played an important role in sanctioning the moral propriety of family members. When family members deviated from ‘proper' behaviour, the clan played the initial role of social and legal control. Since the social and legal structures recognised the family, instead of the individual, as the legal unit, most intrafamily cases were settled within the family according to clan rules.

The role of the imperial state – The teachings of gender roles were not only recognised by the patrimonial state in pre-modern China, but even promoted. Women's propriety or moral behaviour was viewed as a symbol for the well-being of community and state. To reinforce the ideal womanhood, the imperial State assigned officials to collect stories of exceptionally virtuous women in each dynasty. In later dynasties, the imperial states constructed memorial archives, honouring virtuous and chaste women and exempted households led by chaste widows from tax and public duties. Such women were elevated to near-sainthood in Confucian literature.

When women did not adhere to the teachings on women's propriety, they could be subject to court cases. For example, women who committed adultery or were disobedient to parents or parents-in-law were severely punished. In the practice of law, patriarchal principles were explicit: women (or wives) were viewed as junior to men (or husbands), and women's crimes against men – especially of a wife against husband – were punished much more severely than the other way around. Women's lives were more than just controlled by an inexplicable ‘tradition' or ‘Confucian culture': the state clearly played an active and far-reaching role in manipulating them. The motive for control of female virtue is not difficult to see: female obedience and chastity preserved patriarchal power and stability. The stability of the patriarchal family provided security and stability for the patrimonial state.

Socialisation and social control under communist China

The role of the state – Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 under the Chinese Communist party, the role of family in socialisation has been subjugated to that of the Communist state. In addition to gender-role socialisation, families were under intense pressure to socialise their members into socialist citizens. One of the earliest and probably the most significant impacts of communist ideology on women and the family was the push for women's participation in the public labour force. By the late 1950s, over 90% of women of working age had been mobilised into the labour force.

This sudden increase of women's labour-force participation, however, did not necessarily change women's secondary social and familial position. Women ended up subjugated in both private and public patriarchies. Although mothers continued to play a primary role in socialising boys and girls, the state exerted great influence due to the long hours children stayed in public day-care centres and schools, especially in urban settings.

The role of the work unit – From the 1950s to the 1980s, the majority of urban workers worked in work units; people in rural areas worked in communes. Most of the jobs were assigned and workers almost had a lifetime guarantee of employment in urban areas. Most of the companies and firms were government-owned, which provided welfare benefits as well as free day care and schools for children. Most work units had housing units or an apartment complex right next to their work place and larger work units often had their own clinic for basic medical care, and childcare centres and kindergartens for employees' children. This way, the work unit became a real community: workers were neighbours and their children were schoolmates.

As an intermediate institution between workers and the state, the work unit played the initial role of social and legal control. Rather than relying on legal means to punish the deviate, the vast majority of the deviant behaviours were handled within the work unit along with neighbourhood committees and the public security bureau. Since the implementation of the one-child policy in the 1970s, the work unit also became the centre for birth control, distributing free condoms and pills to women, providing quota for childbirth, and controlling second or multiple childbirths. The social control mechanisms included heart-to-heart talks and public shaming of various kinds.

Since the reopening of the universities in the late 1970s, they have become the centre for maturing students. Due to the students' ages (generally between 18-24), universities played a pivotal role in young people's socialisation of gender roles, as well as in social control of sexuality. As a rule, students were not allowed to be sexually active, dating was strongly discouraged and pregnancy was punished if discovered. In practice, the social control of sexuality was the social control of young women's sexual desire and sexual behaviour. In deviant cases where women were found "guilty" of sexual conduct, sexual intercourse or pregnancy, they were punished more heavily than men, often through public shaming. Virginity and purity continued to be women's prized virtues; pre-marital sex was unacceptable mainly for women.

The role of the family – The role of the family in gender-role socialisation under communist China was rather similar to that in pre-modern times: while boys were expected to play with other boys or concentrate on school work, girls were more likely to be socialised to help the mother with household chores and daily life details. Family structure remained patriarchal, patrilocal and patrilineal, and girls continued to be valued less than boys. This gendered discrimination within the family became even more pronounced when the one-child family policy was implemented in the late 1970s. Infanticide was rising and abortion of a female foetus after ultrasound became a common practice.

Changing dynamics of socialisation and social control in contemporary China

In the late 1970s, the Chinese Communist Party started the "open-door" policy, economic reforms, and the one-child family policy. Dramatic changes have taken place as a result of these reforms. The open-door policy brought Western investments as well as ideology to China. The economic reforms redistributed the land back to the rural families and in urban areas workers no longer had lifetime guarantee of employment. Prior to the reforms, 95% of urban workers worked in state-owned enterprises. Decentralisation and privatisation have brought millions of peasants to urban areas in search for employment. In the meantime, millions of workers in urban areas have lost jobs due to closing of factories or lack of resources; they are also migrating to bigger cities or coastal areas seeking for employment. According to a national survey, a population of 93.6 million has moved from rural to urban areas in recent years, making up 8% of the total population, 28% of the urban population.

This unprecedented scale of urbanisation and migration has brought significant changes to the social structure as well as social stability. The former mechanisms of social control through the work unit are greatly weakened, if not completely disappeared. The family is also losing control over its members due to greater mobility and reduced contact. Social control is becoming more and more formalised by resorting to legal means.

As familial and community control loosens, social cohesion and social control are declining. Reports of sex work and HIV/AIDS cases continue to rise. It is still an intriguing question how the Chinese people will find a new balance in gender-role socialisation at the familial and state levels between the traditional values, the fading communist rhetoric, and the lure of market values