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Confucius also taught that everyone had their own place in the world and was expected to respect and obey those above them, especially for their elders and ancestors, and were not to question the status they were given in life. The philosophy of Confucius was considered of great importance to the people of Traditional China for its high standard of morality.
Women in Traditional China were not considered imperative. Instead, they were given the status of inferiority. Because of this belief, girls were regarded as being a burden on the family for it caused financial difficulty for the head of the family to marry their daughters off. Therefore, infanticide was usually performed on newly born baby girls, or if they were spared, baby girls were often made to sleep on the floor as a sign of their weakness and inadequacy.
Throughout the life of a Chinese girl, she is under the constant authority of a man. Firstly, as a child, her father has the right over her until she is married. Once her parents find a suitable husband, the young woman is then under the power of her husband and his family. Being a female, a woman in Chinese society did not gain respect until the birth of her first son. Till the event of a son being born, she is then considered worthy enough.
Another symbol of a woman's lowliness was the practise of foot binding. It was introduced in Traditional China around 7th Century AD to girls belonging to wealthy classes at the age of four. Young girls had their feet securely and strongly enclosed and bent until their arches and small toes were broken and their feet withered. Foot binding was considered a sign of beauty but also the lack of power women held.
According to Traditional China, such experiences practised on Chinese women proved that they truly were inferior. This belief may have been further enhanced with the fact that Empress Wu (684 - 705 AD) was the only woman ever to bear the title "Empress of China".