we-are-la: “When a girl was born in 1910, her mother sighed…”Women’s History Month kicks off today,
we-are-la: “When a girl was born in 1910, her mother sighed…”Women’s History Month kicks off today, so we’re highlighting a former Angeleno who was once hailed as “a living symbol of the new Chinese woman”: journalist Betty Wang, who arrived in L.A. in 1934 to study at USC. You might think 2000 was ancient – think “Oops! … I Did It Again” and clunky CD players – but try going eight decades back.Chinese women were once “something to be owned” – first by her parents, then her husband, Wang wrote in an article published in 1934 in the L.A. Times. “Tradition bound our feet. Home was our world. We had a dozen men to rule us.”And what did Chinese women do, other than homemaking? “She tottered around, embroidered, read poems if she was educated, and sat.”So it’s easy to see how Betty was a symbol of modernity in 1934. She majored in sociology and graduated from the University of Shanghai. Then she worked as a reporter for the China Press in Shanghai before coming to Los Angeles to study at USC. “Now, the world is our home. Thank god – for your Western World. Chinese women have changed.”Sure, there’s still progress to be made – in California, women make 84 cents for every man’s dollar – but women have made amazing strides toward equality since then. Women are CEOs. Women lead countries. Women head school districts, create businesses and spearhead humanitarian efforts around the world. Next year, a woman might even become the next president of the United States. – @anniezyuKnow about an interesting Angeleno (or place in Los Angeles) we should highlight for Women’s History Month? Tag us with #WeAreLA or tweet us @latimes. -- source link