He-Yin had a different approach to the "Women Question" and women's oppression that were raised in China in the late 19th century. She believed that
gender and
social class were inseparable, and analyzed the misery endured by Chinese women for millennia from the perspective of labor. She distinguished herself from contemporary feminist thinkers in that she considered anarchy the one condition in which women could be fully liberated. Unlike many of her contemporaries, such as
Liang Qichao, who viewed the liberation of women as a means to revive China, He-Yin made resolving women's oppression her ultimate goal. He-Yin's
feminism was also formed through her critiques of
capitalism, especially of inhumanity. In her opinion, women would never be free if capitalism persisted. This line of critique provided a logical and powerful philosophy against mainstream western feminism of the time, which prioritized women's suffrage as the ultimate liberation of women. He-Yin criticized not only the social forms women were subjected to but also the political and cultural suppression that limited the freedom of women.
Labor Theory According to He-Yin, the organization of capital around the wage relation relied on less visible forms of social production, such as the unwaged
reproductive labor in which women engaged. Approaching the concept of
labor theory from a historical point of view, she argued that throughout history, Chinese women were relegated to closed quarters, such as the home and family, and prohibited from connecting with the outside world. They could not provide for themselves, which made them dependent on their husbands, and thus subject to their power and authority. She argued against male thinkers who denounced women for dependence on their husbands and their inferiority to men, criticizing their hypocrisy. She pointed out that since women were not allowed to leave their inner quarters, it was unthinkable for them to find a job to support themselves. Although
lower-class women were part of the workforce, they were forced into labor because they had to subsidize their family income, thus whose labor was not viewed as their own production but something insignificant in a male-dominated society. One popular proposal to solve the purported problem of women's lack of productivity was to call women into the
labor force. However, He-Yin saw the flaws in this solution promulgated by male feminists of the time. She pointed out that under
capitalism, women remained exploited even if they achieved professional independence in factories as workers or in offices as secretaries. In workplaces, women had to obey their superiors and follow orders since they depended on them for wages. The capitalist system put women into a situation where their work was undervalued: even if women received their full wages, the wages were still low to benefit the capitalists. Women would never rise up and earn a fair share in a capitalist society. He-Yin also observed that modern machinery reorganized technological knowledge that "Western skills are being transmitted as specializations in schools" but "poor women have no money for tuition."
Feminism He-Yin's critique focused on two aspects of Chinese patriarchy at that time. First is directly against traditional Chinese Confucianism, which oppressed women for thousands of years in China's history. Traditional Chinese
Confucianism defines
women's duty and life purpose, which restrain women's basic human rights like working, attending
imperial exams (Keju), studying, and equal domestic status. Other Chinese feminists at that time also upheld similar objections against Confucianism. The second aspect is against the resignification of women in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Chinese liberal feminist circles. Although society and most Chinese scholars at that time widely judged and rethought the flaws and backwardness of Confucianism, only women in the urban areas gained more rights to improve their social status and living condition. The resignification of women still did not equalize the power gap between men and women. In He-Yin's ideals. the true liberation had not been realized yet. He-Yin's 1907 article ''
On the Question of Women's Liberation'' sharply pointed out facts about marriage in China and the western world. She first mentioned that women in the western world have the freedom to divorce, get an education, and stay single. Apparently, women in the western world are free, but she defined such freedom as physical and unreal liberation. She emphasized that Chinese women's imitation and Chinese feminism that following the western path is wrong. She suggested that "吾决不望女子仅获伪自由、伪平等也，吾尤望女子取获真自由、真平等也" ("I absolutely do not want women to gain only false freedom and equality, I especially hope that women gain true freedom and true equality"). She closed the essay by writing, "Labor is a natural calling for women. But everyone, not just poor women. When labor is borne only by some poor women, then it is a kind of subservient labor. So, in our opinion, if there were the implementation of a system of communalized property, then everyone, whether man or woman, would labor equally..." He-Yin also developed the idea of "男女" (nannü), which means "men and women" or "male and female". She refers to this term to describe the socially constructed hierarchy between men and women, not the biological difference, even though its name derives from the apparent division of the sexes. He-Yin stated in "On the Question of Women's Liberation" that “以為男女有別，乃天地之大經” ("For they considered the differentiation between man and woman to be one of the major principles in heaven and on earth"), that is, the political and moral institutions led by men first regarded the differentiation between men and women as natural and created this phrase. She argues in "The Feminist Manifesto" that nannü is not natural or inherent but created through history, customs, social norms, and education. According to He-Yin, nannü is the earliest form of inequality because the socially imposed separation of men and women creates a hierarchy that precedes other divisions, which produces further forms of oppression, such as authority relationships, access to resources, and social rules. He-Yin believed women's liberation had to be achieved by women, not granted by men. She wrote that gender equality could not be achieved if women still depended on men for basic needs. She critiqued sex work and women's promiscuity as a response to gender inequality and oppression. While she understood that liberation could not be achieved immediately, she believed that it could never be achieved without the elimination of the commodification of women's bodies. She wrote in her 1907 writing "On the Question of Women's Liberation," "When liberation is mistaken for self-indulgence, a woman cannot think of a nobler task than sexual pleasure, not knowing that she might have fallen into prostitution unwittingly. These are some of the weaknesses of Chinese women." He-Yin wrote that this promiscuity of Chinese women may be a result of their long-term cloistering in the home. He-Yin asserts that prostitution is incompatible with liberation. She observed how prostitutes waited on the streets at night for customers like "wild chickens" in the wind and snow. She wrote, "What are the reasons for this? It's because people with money take me and buy me, and I depend on this kind of business for eating." She writes in On the Question of Women's Liberation that women prostitute themselves to gain the favor of wealthier men, thus further enslaving themselves to both the power of men and money. The gratification which results from prostitution is granted by men and perpetuates wealth inequality and the dominance of men, which is why it cannot be a form of liberation. Ultimately, He-Yin was opposed to turning women into "tools for producing wealth". ==Influence==