Feminist thinking in late seventh-century China

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer novel insights into: knowledge of proto-feminism through description and analysis of the rule of the seventh century female Emperor Wu Zetian; postcolonial theory by revealing the existence and proto-feminist activities of a non-western female leader; and the literature on gender and invisibility through a study of a leading figure that is relatively unknown to western feminists and is even, in feminist terms, something of a neglected figure. Design/methodology/approach – In order to examine Wu’s proto-feminist practices as recorded in historical materials, we use critical hermeneutics as a tool for textual interpretation, through the following four stages: choosing texts from historical records and writings of Wu; analyzing the historical sociocultural context; analyzing the relationship between the text and the context; and offering a conceptual framework as a richer explanation. Findings – Wu’s life activities demonstrate proto-feminism in late seventh century China in at least four aspects: gender equality in sexuality, in social status, in politics, and women’s pursuit of power and leadership. Research limitations/implications – Future research may dig into the paradox of Wu’s proto-feminist practices, the relationship between organizational power and feminism/proto-feminism, and the ways in which Wu’s activities differ from other powerful women across cultures, etc. Practical implications – The study encourages a rethink of women and leadership style in non-western thought. Social implications – The study supports Calás and Smircich’s 2005 call for greater understanding of feminist thought outside of western thought and a move to transglobal feminism. Originality/value – This study recovers long lost stories of women leadership that are “invisible” in many ways in the historical narratives, and contributes to postcolonial feminism by revealing the existence of indigenous proto-feminist practice in China long before western-based feminism and postcolonial feminism emerged.

The challenges and outcomes of critical diversity scholarship

“…The third paper, by Tianyuan Yu, Niya Peng and Albert Mills, contributes to further developing critical methodology by showing how critical hermeneutics is applied in a particular case and what the potential challenges and limitations of this methodology are. The authors revisit their earlier critical hermeneutics analysis of the case of the seventh century Chinese female emperor Wu Zetian (Peng et al, 2015). In that article (published in equality, diversity and inclusion), they argued that Wu Zetian pursued gender equality through improving women's status in social life, politics and sexuality and can be considered a "lost story" of female leadership.…”

“…We question whether this turn has indeed been fully made, based on the socio-politics of research privileging quantitative research (Mills, 2015;Bazeley, 2016). We explore the extent to which qualitative research is turning on itself, noticeably in the re-turn of mixed methods, emergence of merged methods and methodological pluralism (Gobo, 2015(Gobo, , 2016Hervieux, 2016) a simplistic distinction between qualitative and quantitative methods (Bryman et al, 2011;Hayes et al, 2016), and lastly, the problematization of the term "qualitative" research and calls for the term to be expunged (Gobo, 2016, Giddings, 2006Mills, 2015;Pringle and Booysen, 2018).…”

“…First we reflect on the status of the qualitative turn in research (Gobo, 2015;Giddings, 2006;Hervieux, 2016) and the proliferation of qualitative methods (Duberley, 2015). We question whether this turn has indeed been fully made, based on the socio-politics of research privileging quantitative research (Mills, 2015;Bazeley, 2016). We explore the extent to which qualitative research is turning on itself, noticeably in the re-turn of mixed methods, emergence of merged methods and methodological pluralism (Gobo, 2015(Gobo, , 2016Hervieux, 2016) a simplistic distinction between qualitative and quantitative methods (Bryman et al, 2011;Hayes et al, 2016), and lastly, the problematization of the term "qualitative" research I argue that quantitative methods will no longer be mainstream when there will be an equal balance of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies in fields of research that are considered mature; such as can be found in the Journal of Management; and when mature fields dominated by qualitative methods will be just as frequent as those dominated by quantitative methods; and none will question the fields maturity.…”