The arrival of British colonialism in China and India provided a major catalyst of change for women and their roles in society which helped to change the viewpoint of many parents during the time. Before the time of colonialism in the nineteenth century social issues for women were dealt with very poorly, and in some cases lethally. Being born a female in China or India was a very hazardous affair due to the common practice of female infanticide where both cultures regarded having a son much more beneficial to the family than having a daughter.

Being born a girl in China was a very unhealthy thing since female infanticide was very common, especially among the lower classes. Not only was a female child an expense to raise, but later she needed a dowry to marry, and her most productive years were devoted to her husband's family and not her own. Therefore, some parent's attitude to children is such that when they bear a son they congratulate each other, but when they bear a daughter they kil

British colonialism both directly and indirectly had an affect on this deadly social problem. As for China there were many factors that helped to shift the practice of female infanticide from commonplace to unlawful and unpractical. Through the avenues of government, religion, and the workplace the lives of Chinese women became much safer. One of the first mentions of government involvement in this issue was on February 19, 1838, when the lieutenant-governor of Guangdong issued a proclamation which stated that he had found the frowning of female children common, and that even the wealthy practiced it. For the poor, he claimed, poverty was reason enough. Girls were simply a source of increasing expenditure, which they could not afford, whereas the rich simply argued that they were of no worth because they could never be raised to any important post in the household. He sent admonitions and instructions to all the departments and districts of the province to inquire into the practice and prohibit it. Protestant missionaries were the first foreigners to register a serious and prolonged concern at female infanticide, and strong criticism of the practice appeared consistently in their numerous accounts of China. Many missionaries related the practice to paganism as well as to poverty. Adele Fielde, a missionary who wrote such perceptive and vivid accounts of the lives of a number of Chinese women during the 1880's, made some attempt to ascertain "the extent of a great crime" and concluded that:

The slow shift to a more industrialized China created a demand for women's labor in the new factories and more girls were being used in domestic industry, and the fact that some families now began to see girls as an economic asset undoubtedly increased their chances of survival. Aside from these three important points other contributing factors would have included a growing awareness of the rights of the individual and the rights of women, increasing emphasis on the young, a decline in the strict observance of the age-old ideal of filial piety, and the passing of new laws granting equal status to men and women in China.

As we can see both China and India both had a serious problem with female infanticide in their societies and that the arrival of British colonialism brought about some profound changes in this horrific social practice by

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Approximate Word count = 1586
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)