Women hold up half the sky ... the domestic half

In a move to uphold restrictive cultural gender norms, Tongji University's College of Women, in cahoots with the Shanghai Women's Federation, will require its students to participate in what amounts to glorified home-ec classes in the upcoming Spring semester.

Shanghai Daily reports:

The courses will begin this spring semester despite a campus survey that found about 60 percent of students in the college are against the idea, many saying they went to university to learn profession skills, not how to keep a husband happy.

All students in the college will have to choose from several elective courses that include cooking, sewing, nutrition and health-care basics, household decorating and other basic skills of a traditional Chinese wife.

It seems to Shanghaiist that these new requirements are a big step in the wrong direction for a self-proclaimed "college of women." The only thing such courses prove is that the administration at Tongji University remians a proponent of traditional gender roles -- in other words, a huge bunch of chauvinists.

Photo from Retro Housewife.