Both Lady Zhuang and Chao Buwei took advantages of changing gender dynamics and the new opportunities afforded to women in China at the end of the 19th and early 20th century. They took risks, and forged lives for themselves, and left legacies that would be unimaginable for women just decades earlier. While both women unquestionably challenged traditional Chinese gender norms and expectations, overall I feel Chao Buwei represented a more radical break from Chinese gender relations because attained a formal education not tied to gender norms, allowing her to embark on a career path less shaped by gender norms and achieve success outside of marriage. Both women came from reputable, well-connected families, which was crucial to their ability
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Her family encouraged her to pursue a career such as teaching or being a doctor, a career that would serve the civil society of the new Republic. Even in pursuing these new careers Chao would encounter gendered expectations, yet she pursued her own aspirations and thrived despite them. For example, when Chao was appointed principal of the Ch’ungshih school, she remembers overhearing a crowd waiting outside her office, questioning her competence and claiming she would ruin the school (Chao, 1947, 112). Yet when it was time for her to leave, she remembers the students and their representatives begging her not to leave (Chao, 1947, 127). In addition, when she was in medical school in Japan, Chao remembers being disturbed by a Chinese government decree declaring that women students should specialize in obstetrics and gynecology, stating that she did not want to be so limited (Chao, 1947, 146-147). She sticks to her own interest in internal medicine, which served her well when she opened her own hospital in Peiping, as her expertise was desperately needed (Chao, 1947, 158-159). Even more impressive, Chao held both positions, as a principal and a doctor, as an unmarried woman. She took control of her own life, breaking the engagement with her cousin because she did not want to be married, though her use of self-deprecation in her letter illustrated that she did not simply completely disregard ideas about gender (Chao, 1947,
Her family encouraged her to pursue a career such as teaching or being a doctor, a career that would serve the civil society of the new Republic. Even in pursuing these new careers Chao would encounter gendered expectations, yet she pursued her own aspirations and thrived despite them. For example, when Chao was appointed principal of the Ch’ungshih school, she remembers overhearing a crowd waiting outside her office, questioning her competence and claiming she would ruin the school (Chao, 1947, 112). Yet when it was time for her to leave, she remembers the students and their representatives begging her not to leave (Chao, 1947, 127). In addition, when she was in medical school in Japan, Chao remembers being disturbed by a Chinese government decree declaring that women students should specialize in obstetrics and gynecology, stating that she did not want to be so limited (Chao, 1947, 146-147). She sticks to her own interest in internal medicine, which served her well when she opened her own hospital in Peiping, as her expertise was desperately needed (Chao, 1947, 158-159). Even more impressive, Chao held both positions, as a principal and a doctor, as an unmarried woman. She took control of her own life, breaking the engagement with her cousin because she did not want to be married, though her use of self-deprecation in her letter illustrated that she did not simply completely disregard ideas about gender (Chao, 1947,