On behalf of the entire team, here at ‘When hens announce the dawn’, we thank you for joining on us this journey, exploring the magic and mysticism surrounding one of history’s most inexplicable figures, Wu Zetian.
We have given you an insight into the culture of the Wu time, a thorough analysis of Wu’s vision as a leader, and a hotly contested debate critically discussing the changes brought about by Wu. The final arc of our journey has been exploring the rigidity and accuracy of what we believe to know about Wu. What is fact? What is fiction? And what straddles the line in between? As we reached the climax of our time with Wu, we felt one element of the multi-faceted Wu required further commentary.
Wu is a woman. Something we were well aware of when choosing Wu as our renowned strategist. What wasn’t as initially clear was how her gender has defined her place in history. We mention umpteen times the fact Wu was the sole female ruler of China, simultaneously we discuss and evaluate Wu’s role as a mother. If you were to compare our blog to those of prominent male strategists, you are unlikely to happen upon one which discusses the parental role of their chosen strategist in as central an element. Why is this? Why has Wu’s legacy as a extraordinary leader been inextricably entangled with her legacy as something so ordinary as a common mother?
This topic warranted further discussion and one that deserved an expert view. Catherine Healy, a Trinity student, currently undertaking a PhD encompassing gender roles in history was called in to reinforce the Calvary and provide an objective view on how and why females have been recorded in history. The follow piece includes independent research and insights posed by Healy, which are ultimately used to draw conclusions on the functioning of information systems throughout history.
Healy explains how there is plenty of evidence of strong, female individuals recorded throughout history who have elicited change. What is different is that often these women did not hold positions that one usually associates with power such as, Emperor, Military General, President. Often the societal change enacted by women tends to be from a grassroots level. Evidence relating to the early modern period (late/post-Middle Ages) show women as central organisers to peasant revolts and protests against tax increases. History has largely confined female influence on issues affecting their own communities and families. When the power of a woman extends beyond their gendered confines of the community and begins to be felt at a national or international scale, such as with Wu Zetian, it becomes more difficult to assess this power objectively given its rarity.
As far back as Ancient Greece, there are women such as the Amazons, a famously brave tribe of warriors known primarily for their brutality and aggressiveness. Paintings from Ancient Greece portray them fearlessly charging into battle. Healy argues strong women, such as the Amazons, haven’t been entirely excluded from history, but rather there is an issue of framing. There are a few examples of extraordinary women in the mainstream consciousness, such as Joan of Arc, who are remembered for displaying the same traits and qualities as their male counterparts.
Beyond the stories of a few exceptional women, female activism has generally been historically linked to hysteria and irrational thinking. Healy notes how there is a problem with the way we conceive female power. Having read, listened and watched many, many articles concerning Wu Zetian over the past five months, I must agree with her. Many of Wu’s acts, while callous, were not considered strategic feats which achieved her goal of prolonged authority, they were instead viewed as wild and unorthodox and upending the natural order. Many men have kept rule through the elimination of potential usurpers, few have been defined in the same manner as Wu.
It is not difficult to find a plethora of similar framings of female power. Examining the suffragette movement of the early 20th century, a movement with the goal of establishing the female right to vote. As the press debated the intentions of the movement, their protests and activism were increasingly ridiculed. Cartoons showed them shrieking and looking masculine in attempt to imply an impression that they were totally irrational mad women intent on destroying the fabric of decent society. We must remember the media is one of the main pillars of historical evidence that we have and make up a large proportion of what we know and believe of prior ages. The way in which they discuss current affairs is paramount in defining and shaping future generations impressions of that time.
Critical theorist, Joan Scott who operates as a gender historian (her widely read article ‘Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis’ is a must for anyone with even a passing interest in how gender has played a role in history). She writes about how political threats historically have been seen in gendered terms. Basically, anyone viewed as an outsider, or somewhat subversive has tended to be represented in a feminine light. To be female or to be reliant on female support is to be seen as weak.
In Healy’s own current research, she has been exploring how the British and American press represented Irish nationalists in the late 19th to early 20th century, particularly during the Fenian bombing campaign in the 1860s up to the 1880s. There is a trope repeated on both sides of the Atlantic that Fenians like Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa were getting all their money from Irish servant girls in America. There were many young poor Irish girls who were forced from their famine devastated communities and fled to America in the hope of repatriating their earnings and supplementing their family’s meagre livelihoods. There is an attempt in the Anglo-American press to discredit Fenian activities, we see the motif continue with the Irish National Land League (‘Conradh na Talún’), led by Charles Stuart Parnell, and later nationalists John Redmond. They were accused again and again of having to rely on the savings of the Irish servant girls who were tricked into giving these anarchic males their hard-earned salary.
Healy points out there is a notion associated with this time that these young girls couldn’t possibly be giving their money through their own political agency, believing in an independent Ireland, they must have been hoodwinked into supporting their male superiors. Considering the problem of how female political agency is conceived is ripe in relatively modern times, in the time of Wu, females were generally thought to have an even lesser understanding of political actions and consequences.
There exists a structural issue of female exclusion from political organisations. In the case of Ireland, Irish nationalists have long been happy to accept female support when it was expedient and on their own terms. However, there wasn’t space assigned for women in the nationalist movement once their wishes opposed those of the male orientated leadership. In Ireland, an important outlet for female political agency from the late 19th century was the Irish Ladies Land League (ILLL), a group which was led by Anna Parnell and were active in fundraising for the land agitation movement in that period. Once the ILLL began developing independent thought that diverged from Charles Stuart Parnell, leader of the umbrella body, the ILLL was abruptly brought to a halt and shut down. This example addresses how female power has been enabled throughout history so long as it does not interfere with the male dominated political establishment. Wu Zetian who upended this notion of acquiescence was an outlier.
When women, from the early 20th century, became increasingly fervent in their demand for a seat at the table, the right to vote, the right to stand for parliament, a lot of people saw this as a threat to the social order and to decent society. As a famous quote from the Wu era goes ‘nature itself began to revolt,… the hens became roosters’.
Healy proposed three ways to address the problem of female omission from mainstream historical records. The first method of addressing this absence, which has gained prominence in the last few decades, is contributory history. There has been a concerted effort to re-evaluate major historical events such as military campaigns and examine how women have contributed to these events in ways that haven’t traditionally been acknowledged. Take the Easter Rising as an example, activities carried out by women were not considered noteworthy yet were instrumental in the events, activities included food preparation, ammunition provision and message carrying. Essentially contributory history provides a female addition to events which have predominantly been remembered for the role of males but still upholds the history provided by traditional information systems.
The second method is to develop and stringently uphold a consistent framework of analysing individuals and events independent of the individual’s characteristics whether that be gender, creed or any other variable. Wu Zetian would be studied in the same manner as any other possessor of power. This is difficult to do and often downright impossible given the nature of the information systems. Historians are limited by the information stored in out-dated, biased historical information systems. It may never be possible to gauge Wu’s legacy under a male metric of success, Wu’s legacy as a leader is likely to remain outshone by her legacy as a mother.
The final method is to conceive power in an alternate manner to the traditional viewpoint. Male historians have predominantly focused in on high politics, major military campaigns. Those subjects naturally emphasise the contributions of males in defining the passage of history. Women have conventionally not been able to contribute to the same extent due to structural and societal reasons. A way to challenge this is to flip the terms of reference and consider power as the influence one has over individuals in the home and community. Women have greater access to this power whether that be a mother in her home or a community leader organising catalytic civic reform. This theory removes power from those sitting atop a hierarchical structure and redistributes it throughout society.
The method we at ‘When hens announce the dawn’ have arguably applied in our analysis of Wu is the second method proposed, applying a universal metric of success to a female ruler. There are positives and negatives to the application of a universal metric. A positive to this strategy is that the focus of our analysis could remain on policy, the initial objective of this blog, and Wu’s role as a mother and wife would largely remain outside the realm of discussion.
This strategy is valuable and important in a context where men aren’t judged by their personal lives. The risk of adopting this strategy is that the personal and domestic experience is depoliticised. Consider the famous feminist quote, ‘the personal is political’, do some elements of a leader’s personal life not warrant scrutiny with the same vigour as that with which we scrutinise their policies? This applies to both female and male historical figures. Without this we run the risk of glorifying individual who achieved societal progress yet harmed those closest to them. It is no doubt a balancing act.
The ‘#MeToo’ movement has brought increased attention to treatment of females close to males in power, in tandem, discussion of feminist leaders conduct towards those employed as domestic labourers has been growing in the last few years. There is an argument here that rather than embrace the traditional male metric of success which focuses on policy and outcome therefore excluding Wu’s treatment of her own family from our analysis, we should instead pay closer attention to behaviour of male leaders towards those closest to them. Debates continue on how power ought to be defined in a historical context, while important, it is often infeasible to redefine the information we are left with from historical periods. Instead we can look presently and ensure behaviour independent of gender becomes integral to our construction and use of modern information systems.
By Conor Holland
When Hens Announce the Dawn 