Professional women of the Ming and Qing dynasties : a study of midwives = 明清時期的職業女性 : 關於穩婆群體的考察

Abstract

Despite the growing presence of gender studies approaches to the history of ancient China, primary source limitations have led to a strong bias toward the study of women from upper class households. This small segment of the population, however, provides little insight into the lives of the majority of women in ancient Chinese society, and new perspectives are needed. Midwives, who are included in the set of professions known as the ‘three aunties and six grannies’, were mostly from the middle and lower strata. This thesis therefore attempts to enlarge our picture of women in the Ming and Qing dynasties through primary source materials relating to this profession available in the First Historical Archives of China.

The idea of “professional women” is a relatively modern concept, which entered China through the New Culture Movement of the early twentieth century; this thesis begins by identifying how the framework needs to be understood differently when applied to earlier periods. Employing the lenses of gender theory as well as social history, this argument focuses on the cultural construction of midwives’ careers over time, as well as interpreting their interaction with other segments of ancient Chinese society. How did people from other classes view this group of people? What shaped those attitudes, and how did those attitudes shape the nature of midwives’ work? More importantly, how did the social ideologies present the Ming and Qing Dynasty correlate with the construction of professional women as well as their work? The thesis finds that their work straddled several domains of knowledge and social legitimation, and includes chapters examining child delivery, assisting pregnant women with abortion, as well as judging women’s reproductive health. Finally, the thesis considers the important social role of midwives in light of the unique official recognition they received from the imperial government.