Han+and+Gupta+(Michael+and+Tyler)

Both the Han and the Gupta Empires had similarities in the way that they treated women, as slaves, subordinate, and housewives. Yet they differed in the sense that in the Gupta women were completely confined to their husbands will, while in the Han, women had a chance to opine and eventually become independent.

Even though both the Han and Gupta Empires differed in the sense of how they treated their wives, it is truly amazing to see the similarities amongst both cultures, despite the distance and time frame separations. It is made more than clear in both passages, //Ban Zhao and The Laws of Manu// for the Han and Gupta Empires respectively, that the women were thought of to be inferior on several different levels. In both societies it is very clear that they were very patriarchal and just as the Romans had the idea of //Pater Familias,// both the Hans and Guptans believed that men had much more power than women. Wives were more property than an actual individual to the Han's, "they only know that wives must be controlled, and that the husband's rules of conduct of manifesting his authority must be established", Gupta's believed that women had little to no rights and were in fact considered property, " a woman must never be independent". Therefore, it must have been really easy to misconstrued the role of a wife to be that of a slave rather than an egalitarian member of society. The stereotypical housewife and being traditional was a role women were forced into in both cultures. The Chinese ruling Empire that extended from the years 200 BCE- 200 ACE and The Gupta Empire that extended from 320 to 550 ACE both believed that women were to be proper and respectful in front of others. They were supposed to put "others first, herself last" (Han) which is in large concordance with the idea that the Gupta's had of women which can be explained through their strong beliefs that she was to always take care of her husband and children without the expectation of any real payment.

The amount of differences of the roles of women between the Gupta and Han Empire was much smaller than the comparisons between the empires. In the Han empire, the controlling of husband and wife were fairly equal, is the husband is unworthy to his wife then he has no right to control his wife and if the husband does not control his wife, his rights are taken away. In the other hand in the Gupta Empire, if the couple does not like each other, they would have to wait a period of one year to accept the concept of divorcing. If a woman in the Gupta Empire is sick, they would have an exception for which to have more power in society, and “a woman must never be independent”, meaning that she shall always serve her father, husband, or son. In the Han Empire they would only teach men and not women for the fact that women are the ones that need to be controlled, meaning that their authority should be greater than women. If a women in the Gupta Empire fails to complete her job as a wife, she will live a life full of punishment in her reincarnation, as in the Han Empire, her name is not honored but disgraced. ( They were actually allowed to be indepentant to be honest)