Women in the Edo Period had a lower status and possessed fewer rights compared to men to a certain extent. Women also lost economical and political rights due to the Tokugawa law. Women could not own property, and a women’s husband was entitled to kill his wife for being lazy or bad, in the circumstances of household chores or how she presented herself as a faithful wife and obedient mother. During the Edo period marriage was arranged by the parents, and the woman would have no choice or rightful say into who she should wed. Women had to endure hardships and brutal abuse and serve their husbands and in-laws. Wives of Samurais and peasants had different statuses, yet their rights were similarly limited. Even if a samurai woman could learn to read and write, they were never allowed to use their teachings in the actual work of the government.
This is a secondary source by Maddy, Shannon & Amberley, some students who had studied the Tokugawa Period of shogun japan. This source tells us that women had many less rights than men in Shogunate Japan. it tells us that men were entitled to kill his wife for being bad or lazy in the circumstances of how she presented herself and the household as a faithful wife and obedient mother. It also tells us that women sometime shad to endure brutal abuse given to them by their husbands or in-laws. This alone shows that then inequalities between men and women were extremely unfair. It also tells us that women were not allowed to own property this was common through out the medieval time where ever in the world you looked. Also common with medieval Europe women had no right to say whom she would wed and the parents arranged her marriage. Another example of why this source is useful is that it tells us that wives of samurai and peasants had different statuses their rights were similarly limited. Some samurai women could learn to read and write however they could not use them in the actual work of the government. The authors view on the treatment of women in shogun japan is a negative one. This source is limited in it’s usefulness as it only tells us the negative treatment of women not the positive. This author obviously believes that the treatment of women in shogun society was unfair as they continue to place negative connotation on everything in the paragraph. This source is changed slightly because it is allowed to be published. In the time of Shogun society this source would not have been allowed to be published. However as it has been published recently it is able to be published. This makes the source more useful because we are able to view it and learn from it. The nature of this source, being a written paragraph, makes it more useful as it tells us exactly what we want to know with out us having to guess anything. This source could be a bit unreliable because it is a culmination of sources and could be slightly mixed in its information.