How did the custom of "preferring men to women" come about and why is there such a thought?

Reasons for the preference for men over women in feudal China:

1. Economic reasons:

Men are naturally superior to women in terms of physical strength and logical judgment, and in the early days of human civilization, greater physical strength and logical judgment meant more sources of food and more opportunities for survival in tribal warfare. In the early stages of human evolution, greater physical strength and logical judgment meant more sources of food and more chances of survival in tribal warfare.

Agriculture has long been the dominant economy. This type of production was so physically demanding that men naturally became the primary laborers, dominating and subordinating women in the homogeneous social structure of the family and the state.

2. Socio-political reasons:

In the socio-political aspect, since the economic base determines the superstructure, the women who are economically subordinate to the men are naturally subordinated to the men in the political status. Therefore, in the patriarchal society, women had no political status and became the object of discrimination and bullying by men.

3. Guarantee of patriarchal system:

Since the establishment of the patriarchal system, the principle of calculating the pi line according to the father's line and the right of inheritance from the father's line were established. In this way, according to the logic of family lineage, only male descendants can extend the clan, while girls are foreigners, and "the woman who marries out is the one who spills out water", and only giving birth to a girl means that she is no longer a descendant. Therefore, in order to extend the clan, there must be male descendants.

4, the guarantee of the ethical system:

Confucianism "indoctrination" and become moral, ethical concepts. Sun Tzu said: "There are three filial piety, no later is great." This strengthened people's expectation of having a male child in Qty. The yin and yang idea put forward in the I Ching, which is the source of traditional Chinese thought, can be said to be the theoretical source of the idea of emphasizing sons over daughters. Later on, through the deduction and transformation of successive thinkers, especially the Cheng-Zhu theory, this idea was gradually brought to the extreme.

Second, patriarchal living customs:

The idea of patriarchy is expressed in some social cultures and customs. For example, in some rural areas of China, it is stipulated that women who have not given birth to a boy are not allowed to attend weddings. In East Asia, traditional funeral ceremonies include five garments, which are heavier for paternal relatives than for equivalent maternal relatives, such as uncles, and heavier for males than for females, even if they are also patrilineal or matrilineal relatives, such as uncles than aunts.

Some languages also show a preference for men over women. For example, in Chinese, "妇人之見" refers to the opinion of an uneducated person, and "妇人之仁" refers to kindness without consideration of the overall situation, which implies contempt for women's talents.

Third, change:

The promotion of equal rights for men and women globally has remained somewhat positive in recent years. In just the past two years, as many as 94 reforms to promote gender equality have been enacted in a total of 65 countries, predominantly in the developing world***. In addition, 127 countries have revised their laws against domestic violence, compared to 7 countries 25 years ago.

With urbanization, patriarchal attitudes have been gradually withdrawn from the mainstream, but in order to completely change this mindset, there is an urgent need to change people's concept of marriage, such as the implementation of the AA system of spending on romantic relationships, the implementation of men and women to buy a house in equal shares or temporary rental, the abolition of the bride price custom, a correct view of the role of the family, etc., which reflects the new era of equality between the husband and wife, the principle of mutual assistance. The first is the principle of the new era of husband and wife equality and mutual assistance.