China: Social and Cultural Changes

Question 1

What was the impact on women’s life by their involvement in work

Answer 1

• Mao encouraged women to join agricultural work for the first time in history in order to increase production
• He argued that this would bring “liberation through labour”, they would receive equal pay to men and be freed from domestic servitude
• However women still took responsibility for domestic work, “double burden”
• Women were subjected to hard labour with no exceptions for pregnancy
• The cadres overseeing the work