Professional Women in the Ming-Qing Society: Diversion in Midwives' Status

Abstract

Existing research on midwives is mainly focused on their work related to child delivery and childbirth. There are relatively few in-depth studies of their roles other than delivery. At the same time,studies so far of women's history in ancient China have ignored the existence of professional women,who broke away from the traditional household economics model and acquired a fixed job,their social identity as well as income. This article takes as the research subject midwives who served on official duties in the Ming and Qing dynasties. It introduces the formation and focus of midwife's roles in wet nurse selection,examination,autopsy,and guard. In order to meet the demands of the society in the context of sex segregation,the governments included midwives in the official establishment through a tenured system so as for them to complete tasks that could not be done bymale coroners and government officials. Among all the official duties,guards for instance had their special duties in the historical context,where the formation of the duties of guards was the result of the mixed-use of midwives and official matchmakers. The rise of guards reflected the need to include females in government service under the Qing. The divergence of midwives' status emerged soon after the legal system in the Qing Dynasty placed midwives in a meritocracy system. This system determined that midwives who simply delivered babies could no longer work for the government and that those who served the government were subsequently no longer midwives experiencing an inevitable transformation of status. This reflected the government's overall aim to make sure that women stayed back in accepting the traditional household economics model. 现有对于稳婆的研究主要集中于她们与接生、胎产相关的工作,鲜有学者对于稳婆承担的接生以外的职能进行深入探究。与此同时,在目前中国古代妇女史研究中,人们往往会忽略那些脱离家庭经济模式且拥有固定工作和社会身份的职业妇女的存在。本文以明清时期为官府工作的稳婆为研究中心,介绍稳婆甄选、辨验、验尸、伴押、看管等相关职能的形成与工作侧重。官府为了迎合社会对于性别隔离的需求,将稳婆纳入人员编制当中,并形成长期的雇佣关系,以完成男性仵作、衙役无法完成的工作。其中,伴押、看管的职能秉承着特别的历史脉络,它们的形成是稳婆与官媒混用的结果。这种混用也体现出清代政府将女性纳入衙役编制的迫切性。在此背景下,稳婆的身份产生了显著的分流,清代法律通过良贱划分,使民间接生的稳婆无法再为官府工作,一方面这是稳婆成为官府衙役后身份的必然转化,另一方面也体现出官方鼓励女性回归以家庭为主导的经济模式。