1. Programme
For information on our programme, click HERE.
Please note our meeting venue,
United Arts Club,
3 Fitzwilliam Street,
(just off Baggot Street,)
Dublin 2,
and meeting days,
the FOURTH WEDNESDAY (mostly!)
of each month.
For information on our programme, click HERE.
Please note our meeting venue,
United Arts Club,
3 Fitzwilliam Street,
(just off Baggot Street,)
Dublin 2,
and meeting days,
the FOURTH WEDNESDAY (mostly!)
of each month.
2. The February 2017 talk: 'Unbound feet: the changing
status of Chinese women, c. 1890-1950' by Dr. Isabella Jackson
At our February meeting Dr Isabella Jackson (TCD)gave us a
fascinating talk which used the issue of foot binding to explore
how the status of women in China dramatically changed over a
comparatively short period of time. She outlined for us the
myths associated with the development of foot binding and
discussed their plausibility. The historical context in which
foot binding developed was also explored and she indicated how
the binding principally expressed a belief in the domestic
nature of the female and focused on a need for women’s
activities to be within the seclusion of the home.
This ideological position obviously caused issues for different
social classes, especially for poorer groups where women might
well be labourers rather than sequestered. In addition, Dr
Jackson was clear that from the start there was always some
opposition within China to the process of foot binding and that
this opposition could be religious and/or political, even as
early as 1664. However, this opposition was mainly ineffectual
until the early twentieth century and she showed the reasons
why. In the twentieth century with a political impetus towards a
‘new China’ changes began to happen. These were both cultural,
political and economic in nature and they were reflected in
attitudes to foot binding. In industries that developed, such as
the mills in Shanghai which recruited large numbers of women
workers, the tasks could not be done with bound feet. In the
cultural sphere changes in fashions, the emergence of women’s
magazines etc produced radical images not in line with ‘lotus
feet’ and the relative physical immobility of women that binding
produced. In the political sphere the emergence of women into
political arenas, such as into provincial assemblies, provided a
different image and role for women which challenged the emphasis
on an enclosed domestic role for women with bound feet.
Change did not always come easily though and it wasn’t always
possible for the state to ensure the end of foot binding.
However, as the century progressed and political change swept
across China the state became more powerful and the resistant
family system which had clung to foot binding declined. The
state was able to intervene in many areas previously seen as
domestic and could enforce bans in matters such as forced
marriage, or the keeping of concubines and was able to ensure
that laws passed previously banning foot binding could now be
enforced.
by Ann Wickham