"I came to the Hall of Worthies to seek office so I could change women's status. Who wants your subsidy?"
"I am a woman, but you must treat me as an equal to men."
"In the future, more women will be like me, like the Female Physicians. Whatever men can do, women can do too."
"Do not look down on women. His Majesty values women's strength, and I should remain in the Hall of Worthies."
"I seek office solely because of His Majesty's Three Obediences and Four Virtues: let women enter medicine and become physicians, enter government service and become court officials, enter military service and become generals. I want to change how the world sees women."
The memorial recorded this woman's conversation with Zhang Da.
The more Zi Shou read, the more he liked it.
She was a feminist fighter through and through!
Granted, she was a genuine feminist, not one of those self-serving "pastoral feminists," but that hardly mattered. Genuine or not, success would be difficult!
That had been his plan when he proposed the Three Obediences and Four Virtues and established the office of Female Physician.
Listening to women and placing them in important positions was a grave offense in this era.
In his previous life, Zi Shou had grown up watching stories about Mu Guiying, Hua Mulan, and Fan Lihua. As an adult, he had learned about the deeds of Qiu Jin, **, and Zhao Yiman. These heroines were admirable, but the reason they stood out so much and their stories spread so widely was still that they were women, which lent them an even more legendary air.
How difficult was it to secure genuine rights for women and achieve equality between the sexes?
This was the Shang Dynasty. The first feminist movement had only come