Good Wife, Wise Mother

"Good Wife, Wise Mother" is a phrase representing a traditional ideal for womanhood in East Asia, including Japan, China and Korea.

Childbearing was considered a "patriotic duty", and although this philosophy declined in Japan after World War II, feminist historians have argued it existed there as recently as the 1980s.

Since Chinese families puts emphasis on prosperity, a wife should also not only be fertile, she needs to produce sons and educate them so that they can succeed in society.

[4] From the late 1890s to the end of World War II, the phrase became increasingly prevalent in mass media and higher levels of public and private girl's schools.

For feminists, the idea of "Good Wife, Wise Mother" disguises the real intention of denial of women's equity in education, profession, and marriage.