Throughout history, women have been treated as if they were belongings. Not only were rights given only to men, but those so called rights gave men power over women. The power relationships in the household of China started in the marriage negotiations, with the intricate dances of the gift exchanges and dowry, and continued on through the rest of the woman's life. The negotiations for the bride were conducted not with love, or feeling, or her interest in mind, but for the family, for the money, and for the benefits of marriage. An elaborate tradition whose roots were set in the ownership of women by men, marriage was often a cruel institution. The mistreatment did not end there. It continued on the wedding day, after the wedding day, and every day of the bride's life, a self-perpetuating cycle of pain and suffering that would not, could not, be...