| Influenced by the feudal clan authority, patriarchy, authority of the husband, Chinese ancient law provided women the extremely low status. When it entered modern society, with the input of western capitalist culture and the spread of democracy and freedom thought, the legal qualification of women was formed and Women's legal status was improved progressively with the transformation of the society. Women experienced the change from the accessory of men to free individuals, from the second-class civil position to being equal to man, which is a complicated historical course. By discussing the process of women's legal status changing in modern society we can perceive the track that women were liberated arduously.The full text divides the transmutation course of the legal statuses of modern women into three parts:The first part is about the preliminary establishment of the legal statuses of women in the late Qing Dynasty. During this period, the peasant regime of the Taiping Heaven gave the preliminary change of the women's legal statuses, which reflected the request of women's right improved in modern society. The new law reform of Qing Dynasty in latter stage made the Chinese women obtain the independent civil subject qualifications for the first time. The legal status can really stands in modernism.The second part explains the improvement of women's legal statuses by all previous governments after the Republic of China was established. The establishment of the Republic of China offered the opportunity for the improvement of women's legal statuses. Through the revision of the laws of women by the Northern Warlords' government and the national government of Nanking, the women's legal status in all respects, such as politics, economy, culture, etc. have been improved greatly. But the women's legal status in this period still had its limitation. The change of woman's law was one of the important parts in the modernization of Chinese law. It was also thecourse that the western capitalist law influenced in China.The third part is about the establishment of the women's legal status by the revolutionary regimen of base area that the Communist Party of China led. Following the principal that liberated women and broke the fetter of remaining feudalism from the women, the Communist Party of China had issued a series of laws, giving women rights on politics, economy and culture which was equal to man. All this had become the important part of the new democracy law. The last part analyses the transmuting course of the legal status of Chinese women in the modern society, which shows the characteristic of transmutation about women legal status. That is to say, the transmutation of women legal status followed the reformation of the society, changed with the turning of the regime natures, was the process of accepting the western legal culture, and related closely to women's own struggle. |
