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영어

The purpose of this study was to discuss the gender-related issues of women in the Japanese Middle Ages, including sexual restrictions, sexual awareness and sexual life. And it's specifically attempted to delve into the effect of Ie on women in the medieval times when patriarchism characterized by Ie became prevailing among all the people involving noblemen, warriors and commoners.
Ie gave weight to the paternal line, and maternity, namely giving birth to a child, was accentuated to retain Ie. This kind of view of maternity forces women to remain faithful, and that phenomenon resulted in making them subordinate to men.
Such a sexual restriction on women, who were member of Ie, also exercised an influence on nonmembers. Women who had special jobs, including Nyobo, Yujyo and Shirabyoshi, were relatively liberal in sexual life, but literary works often described them as those who remained faithful to particular men and were dedicated to religious life as Buddhists for the sake of their dead sweethearts. This showed that the consciousness of Ie and androcentrism affected across the board in the medieval times.
Divorce and remarriage were also closely related to family estate, and there were lots of restrictions on the divorce or remarriage of women who inherited their husband's property. The effort to retain and protect family estate ended up controlling females.
Furthermore, adultery issue was also under the influence of androcentric sexual awareness. The immoral conduct of men was rarely regarded as a social issue, and men who had immoral sexual relations with married women were mostly punished by their husbands. And in many cases, those who had sexual relations of married women at the women's houses were murdered by their husbands, since wives were looked upon as part of family estate and immoral conduct was viewed as damaging family property.
As discussed above, the effort to retain Ie was one of the crucial factors to put restraints on femininity and make woman subordinate to man.