HW Pan Chao: Foremost Woman Scholar of China

Pan Chao: Foremost Woman Scholar of China communicates qualities that establish gender roles in, I believe, 80 CE. Within the first two paragraphs, Ban Zhao introduces the reader to the perception of women at the time: unintelligent by nature. Ben Zhao states she fears humiliation and shame will come to the ancestors (connection to a person’s lineage) and to her clan (female gender) because women are not properly trained for marriage. The book of lessons, therefore, serves as a call to action for females to act accordingly by adhering to Confucianism’s teaching of the bond/relationship between husband to wife. In creating this book, she reinforces gender roles by establishing qualities the culture of the time valued. As I read the excerpt, I felt the author was voicing out the opinions that were instilled in her and other females since birth: docility, abnegation, malleability, and propriety. When females are compared to others, I also got the impression that, on some level, the book seeks to inculcate a state of neither above par nor subpar; women had to find a way to not outshine others. While discussing the four qualifications a woman should have, the author states, 

...womanly virtue need not be brilliant ability, exceptionally different from others. Womanly words need be neither clever in debate nor keen in conversation. Womanly appearance requires neither a pretty nor a perfect face and form. Womanly work need not be work done more skillfully than that of others.

For the time, I believe this book was effective in perpetuating female gender roles in a patriarchal society. Women did not have a lot of say, and it seems their main roles pertained to marriage, childbearing, and the inculcation of the norms they were raised to adhere to.