Gender and Power: Manifestations of Women’s Status in the Discourse of Reform

Abstract

This paper examines the intersection of gender and power in East Asia during the late 19th century, contextualizing women's status within the broader framework of Western imperialism and civilizational discourse. This involves an exploration of how women's status became central to debates on modernization and nationalism admist challenges posed by colonial pressures and regional power shifts. In China, anti-footbinding campaigns symbolized a rejection of traditional Confucian values and an attempt to align with Western moral standards. In Japan, the Meiji government used women's education and equality as political tools to project an image of progress, and differentiate the nation from its 'backwards' neighbors. In Korea, reform-minded intellectuals critiqued Confucian gender hierarchies in an attempt to blend Western ideals with traditional values and placate the need for progress. Through each of these historical phenomena, this paper explores the idea that women's status became a marker of civility and a key site of reform across East Asia; in this sense, gender became a lens through which nations constructed their identities.