# Bray, *Technology and Gender*, 1997 > [!cite] > Bray, Francesca. *Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China*. University of California Press, 1997. --- ## quotes ‘The peaches on the folding door of the sleeping alcove are symbols of fertility.’ [[Bray, Technology and Gender, 1997|(Bray 1997, 283)]] ^56c09f ‘While the practices largely resulted from commercialization, the dominance of Neo-Confucianism in the Song had a big role in the popularization of footbinding, as the practice reinforced the seclusion of women and separation of gender.’ [[Bray, Technology and Gender, 1997|(Bray 1997, 320)]] ^78ba33 ‘\[…] to understand lives, the ordinary activities of human beings in ages other than our own, it is indispensable to consider the technologies that served them, for they formed in many respects the very framework of those lives themselves.’ [[Bray, Technology and Gender, 1997|(Bray 1997, 1)]] ^2f1269 ‘In the Greek medical tradition (which still echoes through our own) the explanation of sex differences centers mainly on a contrast in reproductive form and function from which other secondary differences arrive. Women’s health, constitution and behavior are often explicitly linked to their wombs, a distinct anatomical organ that men do not have; they cannot experience its sensations, though they can examine it. The kind of understanding thus reached by a male medical professional is objective, not subjective. The question arose in Greece whether such knowledge was truly adequate, or did male physicians need to consult women to reach a truly empathetic understanding of female experience and ailments?’ [[Bray, Technology and Gender, 1997|(Bray 1997, 315)]] ^55f8a7