10. The rise of neo-Confucianism during the Song dynasty restricted women and girls
From the onset of the Song Dynasty (960 – 1269 CE) the rights of women and girls in Chinese society grew more restricted. Essentially neo-Confucian beliefs supplanted the achievements which had been made by women, and they were further diminished in Chinese life. Chastity became a virtue preached by male philosophers toward women, and it became taboo for a widow to remarry, with remaining faithful to her late husband taking priority over even financial concerns. It was believed that a poor widow was better off dying in poverty than marrying again and thus betraying her late husband. It also became taboo for women to discuss men or the affairs of men whenever they were outside of the home.
It was in the Song Dynasty that the practice of binding of girls’ feet began and expanded across China, which had an obvious deleterious effect on women dancing and performing street acts of stories, as they had in earlier days. Singing and the reading of poetry soon declined as well. Leading philosophers of the dynasty developed the belief that women were inferior to men in all ways, and should be largely kept separate from them. Women became the inner (yin) and men the outer (yang) and women were believed to be made to remain indoors, within their home, not to come out unless with their father or husband from the age of ten.