6. 800 - 300 BCE- Asian Philosophies and Women's Place
In Asia, three religious philosophies, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism emerged that defined millions of human lives for millennia to come: What do these philosophies have to say about women, and what roles did women play in their founding? Women are all over the founding stories and traditions, and although this varies from faith to faith, women feel a bit like an afterthought in each.
How to cite this source?
Remedial Herstory Project Editors. " 800-300 BCE - ASIAN PHILOSOPHIES AND WOMEN’S PLACE" The Remedial Herstory Project. November 1, 2025. www.remedialherstory.com.
Hinduism
On the Indian subcontinent, a religion known today as Hinduism began as early as 1500 BCE and was spreading. The fundamental principle was that the human soul was part of a universal soul or deity and that the final goal of humankind was to be unified with that soul. From the religion’s origin, Hindus worshiped many gods, including female goddesses.
Hindus believe that through the process of birth and reincarnation humans would eventually progress to an elevated state. Good actions resulted in a rebirth at a higher social position or caste. This caste system, which divided Hindus largely into five groups, legitimized gender differences: being female was somehow a punishment for poor behavior in a previous life, and each caste had different ideals of womanhood.
Like other spiritual traditions around the world that viewed women with hostility, Hindu laws embedded patriarchy in tradition. The Laws of Manu for instance, composed in the early Common Era, stated that all embryos were male and female babies were merely mutilated males produced by weak semen. It also advocated child marriage, and prescribed a philosophy similar to the Three Obediences found in Ancient China, as one principle stated that, “a virtuous wife should constantly serve her husband like a God.” It argued that a woman could only achieve spiritual salvation through her husband, and equated all women, especially during menstruation, with the polluted lower castes. Although many now consider the Laws of Manu outdated, much of the patriarchal ethos remains entrenched in Indian and other Hindu cultures today.
Despite this perception of women, many Hindu deities are female, unlike the male God of the Christian and Jewish faiths. Some of these goddesses were powerful, fearsome, and destructive. One famous portrayal of the goddess Devi, in her incarnation as Kali, shows her standing with her foot on top of her husband‘s head. Were these just stereotypes of powerful women, or were they feminist icons? Did it also legitimize male fear of women?
Entrenched in Hindu philosophy is the idea of shakti, or feminine power. It holds that the feminine power is greater than masculine power and is thus in need of creative control. Nonetheless, it is believed that shakti and the masculine energy, shiva, are equally dependent, and thus, Hinduism can also provide a model of equality at a spiritual level.
Kali trampling Shiva
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Confucianism
In China, the rise and eventual adoption of Confucianism by the Han Dynasty in the 3rd century BCE, represented a birth of uniquely Chinese culture that lasted for millennia, but what was that like for women? Did the improved bureaucracies and emphasis on meritocracy extend to them as well?
No. Confucian ideology emphasized moderation, virtue, and filial piety and covered up the authoritarian policies of the regime. For women, Confucianism was, and remains, a problematic barrier to women’s rights and feminism and is deeply ingrained in Asian cultures.
So who was Confucius? He lived around 500 BCE and was considered one of the great Chinese sages. He was a bureaucrat, teacher, and philosopher. He lived in a time when leaders were corrupt and not working toward the needs of the empire and its people. He wanted social harmony and political stability grounded in trust and mutual moral obligations to China.
Confucianism is often associated with oppressing women through subjugation to the male head of the household, even to their sons during widowhood. Whether Confucius intended this discrimination is hard to know, but Confucianism and sexism are intertwined.
Confucius, himself, basically ignored women in his writing. There are only a few direct references to women, and one of them is hostile: “Women and servants are hard to deal with.” When ten ministers came to see the king, Confucius stated that nine ministers and one woman came. Why he neglected her is unclear. Was he commenting on the unusual nature of a woman in that role? Or was he merely distinguishing men from women?
It is from Confucius that we get the Yin and Yang concept that balances feminine and male qualities as separate but equal. Yin and Yang are starkly different, as men and women have different qualities. Yang is strong, but Yin is weak and yielding. A man is honored for his strength, yet a woman is glorified for her beauty. Feminists today reject this model as it has been used to justify women’s subordination and exclusion from life outside the home.
Confucian philosophy demanded that women live controlled lives. Many baby girls were abandoned shortly after birth, a practice called “infanticide” that was not restricted to China. Baby girls in every region of the world were vulnerable simply because they were female. One ancient Chinese proverb noted that, “even a poor man would bring up a son, but even a rich man will dispose of a daughter.” Girls in China who survived were given virtuous names like Chastity in hopes that they would live up to that label.
A woman could not earn money outside the home and was expected to leave her family to join her spouse when she married. At the same time, Chinese women had no control over who they married. The old proverb went: “A boy is born facing in; a girl is born facing out.”
Confucianism solidified women’s second-class status and culturally secured the prohibition on women’s formal education. Women’s education improved when outsiders gained control of traditional Chinese regions, but the domination of Confucianism locked women into perpetual slavery to their families. One scholar wrote, “Few people teach their daughters to read and write nowadays for fear that they might become over ambitious.” Another wrote, “It is sufficient for women to know a glossary of a few hundred words such as fuel, rice, fish and meat for their daily use. To know more can do more harm than good.” Analects About Women, an early text, encouraged girls to be chaste and silent. It also provided this guidance for parents:
Keep your daughter indoors [...] she ought to be under your total command.You should scold her roundly if she is not quick to obey, remind her often of self-discipline and household duties. Ensure that she shows due deference towards guests and that she retires quietly once the tea has been served. Do not spoil your daughter for fear of her becoming unruly. Never encourage or tolerate self-destructive behaviour for fear of fostering in her a suicidal tendency. Do not teach her to sing for fear of corrupting her mind. Do not let her loiter for fear of evil-temptation.
Bureaucracy (n.), a system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives.
Meritocracy (n.), government or the holding of power by people selected on the basis of their ability.
Filial piety (n.), a cultural value that emphasizes respecting, caring for, and obeying one's elders, especially parents.
Sage (n.), a profoundly wise man, especially one who features in ancient history or legend.
Confucius
Symbol for Yin and Yang
Gautama Buddha, the father of Buddhism, lived and taught around the same time as Confucius. He, too, had a powerful philosophy that significantly affected women’s lives. Buddhism focuses on personal development and attainment of deep knowledge. Buddhists seek to achieve enlightenment through meditation, spiritual learning, and practice. They believe in reincarnation, that life is full of suffering, and that the path to peace is through nirvana: a joyful state beyond human suffering.
Buddha’s story begins when princesses Mahapajapati Gotami and her sister Maya married King Súddhodona in Ancient India. Maya gave birth to the boy who would go on to become the Buddha but she died only seven days after his birth. Her sister raised the boy along with her own children, even nursing him in infancy.
As he grew, he began to learn about human suffering that he had been shielded from through his life of privilege. As a young man, Buddha renounced his worldly wealth, escaping the palace in the night and choosing to live in poverty for six years. Just before achieving enlightenment, the Buddha-to-be was overwhelmed by Mara, the God of Illusion until the Earth Mother washed Mara away with water from her hair. The Buddha is often pictured with a hand down to earth in gratitude for the Earth Mother.
After the Buddha began to build a religious community, his aunt/adopted mother Gotami became one of the earliest followers of his teaching. Buddha improved women’s status by emphasizing man’s dependence on women, as woman is the mother of man, deserving of reverence and veneration. He also improved women’s opportunities in education and spirituality, by reluctantly allowing women into monastic life.
Gotami approached the Buddha to ask if women could join the order as nuns. He refused her request. Disheartened, Gotami and her many women followers shaved their heads and put on the yellow robes worn by Buddhist monks, living as if they were already nuns, but still sought his blessing.
By tradition, the Buddha refused Gotami’s request three times. When at last one of the Buddha’s closest assistants, Ananda, offered to speak for the women, he was also at first refused. Buddha said, “women are stupid, Ananda. That is the reason, Ananda, that is the cause, why women have no place in public assemblies.” Ananda then asked the Buddha if women were capable of achieving sainthood. The Buddha agreed that they could but he still hesitated. Ananda then gently reminded the Buddha of the great love and service his aunt had rendered as his foster mother. Finally, the Buddha agreed that Gotami and the women who followed her could be ordained.
But, there was a catch. The Buddha said the women could be ordained only if they agreed to follow the “Eight Chief Rules.” The rules themselves applied only to nuns and they clearly dictated that, in every way, a nun would always be dependent upon monks and would occupy a more subservient role to the men of the order. Even a nun of “a hundred years standing,” said rule number one, should bow down to a monk even if he’d been ordained only a day earlier.
Gotami had a big choice to make. Her dedication to the Buddha and her advocacy on behalf of women like herself is undeniable. Most of the women who followed her were also widows with adult children - women who had very few opportunities for making their own way in the world. Gotami’s acceptance of the Eight Rules would cement the lower status of women within Buddhism. Ultimately, she accepted the terms because doing so opened up new possibilities for women in India even if it came with serious limitations.
The nunnery itself was revolutionary for women. Most women in India were entirely dependent on the men in their lives. The nunnery offered something unprecedented: women living independent from their families in prayerful pursuits.
Buddhism
Enlightenment (n.), the action or state of attaining or having attained spiritual knowledge or insight, in particular (in Buddhism) that awareness which frees a person from the cycle of rebirth.
Buddha with Queen Majaprajapati Gotami
Reverence (n.), deep respect for someone or something.
Veneration (n.), great respect.
Monastic (adj.), relating to monks, nuns, or others living under religious vows, or the buildings in which they live.
Ordained (v.), make (someone) a priest or minister; confer holy orders on.
Mahapajapati Gotami, the first Buddhist nun
Increasing Monotheism
Women’s status declined with the rise of organized and monotheistic faiths. For example, Indian society had been patriarchal and had a strict caste system, but the abundance of powerful female goddesses and the existence of a female warrior class shows that women were regarded with high status and respect. There was a prayer for a scholarly daughter and admiring texts for female academics. Vedic texts reveal that women were honored and empowered both in traditional domestic spaces as well as in public spaces traditionally dominated by men.
The introduction of Brahmanism, the belief in one true God, or Brahman, was the final nail in the coffin of women’s ultimate subservient position. As the Buddhist, Jain, and Brahmanist faiths expanded, child marriages became more common, and by 200 CE, women’s right to education, selection in marriage, and other observable measures of freedom were increasingly withdrawn.
Widows in many parts of the world, no longer virgins, were often considered expendable. In India, it was common for widows to commit suicide to join their spouse in the afterlife. These women, often child brides married at seven, had never had any choice in their lives. On the death of their spouse, they were drugged and expected to join them on the burning pyre. We don’t know how frequently this happened, but for some, it was believed to be the ideal death for a widow.
Monotheism (n.), the doctrine or belief that there is only one God.
Jainism (n.), a nontheistic religion founded in India in the 6th century BC that teaches salvation by perfection through successive lives.
Pyre (n.), a heap of combustible material, especially one for burning a corpse as part of a funeral ceremony.
Conclusion
In every part of the world, culture enforced the idea that a woman’s sole purpose was the rearing of children. Women who defied the norms did so at their own risk. Some were protected by class, others supported by men, and some found loopholes to exploit. But women who pushed the boundary too far or stood too strong were denounced as whores and met with violence in the form of domestic abuse, honor killings, or charges of witchcraft.
As with the previous chapter on the Mediterranean region, we are forced to ask, why did these norms develop, and why would women submit to these norms? Why were they so universally accepted? Would women be able to circumvent these norms? Would means of women’s education and liberation become available, if not in the modern sense?
