Women in China Traditionally, the family has been the most important unit of Chinese society and remains valid to this day. Over the past two years or so, new definitions of women's roles have formed as many Chinese women have received higher education, entered the workforce, begun to compete with men, and become financially independent. Confucianism and the communist movement have greatly influenced the role of women and family structure in China. Classical literature played an essential role in defining the family and classical women. The Book of Changes illustrates the role of women and the family throughout history. This book emphasized a perfect society in which each person would wholeheartedly accept their assigned parts, dedicating themselves to their responsibilities towards others. Other literature glorifies and defines ideal women, emphasizing the main theme of submission. Throughout their lives, women were expected to follow the Three Submissions, which are as follows: observe filial piety in childhood, submit to one's husband in marriage, and obey one's son in widowhood. With notable exceptions such as the old empress-dowager, women in traditional China have been largely deprived of a public role, and certainly a political one. The position of women in traditional China was based on two considerations. First, there was the male prejudice, common to most societies, which insisted that women's place is in the home and that their contributions are in all respects secondary to those of women. male. The second factor derives from the structure of a society, which depends greatly on the family and clan. In traditional China, a woman married far from home and settled in her husband's home, normally under the supervision of her in-laws. The function of marriage was fundamentally to maintain the male lineage on which the future depended, and a woman's status depended very considerably on the children she produced. If he failed in this duty, the chief wife might find herself joined by a concubine, so there was no reason for the husband to reject the younger favourite. In contrast, the definition of the roles of women and the family changed radically during the communist movement. The idea of ​​communism was that of collectivism and equality. In this movement, religion was thought to be a paralyzing agent that only caused false hopes; so many old Confucian rituals and ideas were somehow rejected and women became equal. The aim of the movement was to promote women's participation in all aspects of social life.