Social Prejudices against Divorced Women in Modern China Research Paper

Social Prejudices against Divorced Women in Modern China - Research Paper Example She initiates the divorce and is okay living her life as a single mother. However, in the eyes of society, this is not the case. To them, a divorced woman is an unhappy, miserable woman. According to that society, it is assumed that a woman must be left or dumped by her husband for a divorce to take place. An illustration is when everyone in her workplace condemns Zhu Xiaofen’s husband for leaving her, without even knowing the full story or letting her explain her side of the story. Another example is when her friend from college insists that Zhu is aging and looking sickly just because her husband left her. When her colleagues see her jumping the rope outside their office, they all think that she is jumping to impress them and trick them to believe she is fine, so as to suppress her real feelings. In the story, another form of prejudice noted is that for a divorce to take place the woman must be the cause and she must do everything to avoid the shame of divorce. This is best illustrated when Zhu’s former principle sees her on the train and tells her that women must behave well in order to make a marriage work and avoid the shameful act of divorce. She claims that if Zhu had taken things seriously, her marriage would work. Another form of social prejudice observed is that divorced women cannot be self-sufficient. This is illustrated in the story when her friend who was a ticket-taker at the train station assumed that since she was divorced, no one would come and pick her and she even suggested asking her husband to give Zhu a lift in his cab. This is an assumption that when a woman gets divorced, she lacks the support of her husband and so she cannot do some of the tasks on her own. They tend to insist on helping even when it is not necessary.  Ã‚