Why We Still Need Feminism? A Comparative Reading of Nüjie女诫 and Proverbs 31

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The oppression on women is a universal problem. In the west, the Bible has been regarded as the root of this oppression, and in China, it is Ban Zhao, a female scholar in Han Dynasty who has been criticized because she wrote a book called Lesson for Women to discipline women’s behavior, teaching women to be humble and subordinate to men (father, husband and son). Proverb 31 illustrates a “women of virtue”, setting a perfect woman model for women in Christian world. This paper is going to compare these two works, trying to see the commonality and differences of Chinese and Western mind – set in treating women. The author thus argues why feminism as a necessary education for Chinese women today is still needed.