CHINA’S NEW WOMEN

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1932, Page 8

CHINA’S NEW WOMEN

EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION EQUALITY IN DIVORCE. The rapidity with which Chinese women are beginning to understand their new position of legal aqualii., with men, as attested by. the Jiuumer pt cases already filling the courts, shows,, that an . understanding of Glnna.fS; new laws on family relations j is. spreading at an astonishing rate, states the “New York Times’ ’’ special correspondent at Shanghai. Tile law drafting committee of the legislative Yuan at Nanking spent most of its time in 1930 working on Books four and five of the neu civil code of China. These books, comprising .the new “Law of Family Relations and Succession,” were promulgated on December 26, 1930, and finally became effective on May of this year . The first movement of the legal recognition of the economic, social, educational, and legal equality of women with men were embodied in a pronouncement into a code and to witness the beginning of its application by Chinese'courts. Now, after uncounted centuries of bondage, the women of China find themselves with the status of legal , persons with new freedoms and with new responsibilities.

WIN ESTATE CASES. Already there are court cases in which women are testing the application of tlie new law which provides that sons and daughters are to share equally in the family inheritances. Under the old family system not only did a single daughter inherit nothing ,but a married daughter was considered as tli e property of her husband’s family, and would never have dreamed of asking for a share of tlie family property after the death x of her parents. In all eases so far decided under the new law, married or unmarried women who have sued tjieir brothers for a share of the family estate have won. The new code protects the position of widows by giving them one-third of the estates of their husbands, and also permits them to .dispose of their property by making such wills as they choose. Married women, under the old laws, could own no separate property. Even their marriage dowries, the wedding gifts, and all presents made to them personally, in after years were the unquestioned properties of their husbands. In the new code China lias followed the Swiss system, which permits three regimes to rule with regaial to property of man and wile. The newly-married couple may :m----nounce a community property regime, a uniqn of property regime, or a seprangement is made the union of property automatically becomes statutory. Whenever the family property is insufficient for the house hold expenses, a wife’s, personal propertty must be drawn upon for half the regular outlay. MARRY OF OWN FREE WILL The ancient Chinese custom under which parents arranged the betrothal of their children, and which made such betrothals as legally binding as marriages, is done away with. In the niture “an agreement to marry shall be made by the male and the female parties of their own accord.” Legal grounds for breaking an engagement are listed and suits for damages rising out of breach of promise to marry are provided for, but the new law specifically prohibits tlie old custom under which it was legally possible to force a reluctant man or woman to fulfil a betrothal contract. In future girls under 15 and boys under 17 may not become engaged and marriages may not be concluded until after p girl has passed her sixteenth year. . China’s old law gave formal legal statue to ooncubimes, and provided that the sons of concubines should share in the family inheritance. The new law does not mention concubinage, but permits a wife to obtain a divorce if her husband is guilty of illicit relations with any other woman; and also specifics that children born out of a wedlock are not to share inheritances unless they have subsequently been adopted. Since immemorial times Chinese women have been susceptible to punishment by imprisonment for adultery, and tlie new law provides the same punishment for husbands guilty of a like offence. In the past the Chinese State has never concerned itself with di\oices. Under the new law husband or wife may apply to a court for a divorce it they choose to do so, hut they may also effect a private divorce by mutual argeemont if the divorce settlement is made out in duplicate and signed before two witnesses.