SOCIAL Flashcards
what was the role of women before 1949?
- Many baby girls were the victim of infanticide
- Arranged marriages were common
- Concubines were common
- Women were subject to the 3 obediences
- Girls were not provided with educational opportunities
- They often partook in Foot Bindings
what were the 3 obidences?
a women should be obedient to:
- her father before marriage
- her husband during marriage
- her son after death of husband
what was the Marriage Law introduced by Mao?
1950
- Concubinage & arranged marriages are banned
- Husbands and wives have equal status at home
- the exchange of money or gifts for marriage was banned
- a wife could inherit her husbands property
- Divorce was much easier
was the New Marriage Law effective?
not entirely
- led to increased divorce rate
- husbands lost what they saw as a financial investment
- violence broke out in poorer peasant families as people tried to reclaim divorced wives
what impact did collectivisation have on women’s lives?
- women were forced to work on the land (meant to make them equal but still did domestic work)
- many women turned to sex work to buy food
- women received little food from the communal kitchens
- sexual abuse was common in the communes
what was the Women’s Association
it was dedicated to encouraging political activism among women - had a membership of 76 million - it campaigned against sex work and domestic violence in women
what were the changes in education for women?
- The CCP encouraged more families to send girls to school
- Between 1929 and 1949 only 35% completed their primary education
- 100% of women who started after 1959 completed their secondary education
- By 1978 45% of primary school children are girls
what evidence was there that for an improvement of status for women?
- Many women took advantage of the new opportunities (i.e. escaped unhappy marriages)
- many women declared in the ‘Speak Bitterness’ campaign
- Women politicised during the Cultural Revolution
- Maoist propaganda challenged gender views
what were the problems of challenging traditional views?
- Husbands still saw domestic work and childcare were domestic work
- Many party Cadres did not enforce legislation like the New Marriage Law
- Traditional practices still continued in rural China (foot binding, arranged marriages, e.c.t)
what was the standard of education in China in 1949?
- only 45.2% of males and 2.2% of females received any education
- Males averaged 4 years of schooling and Females who attended had 3
- 80% of the population were illiterate
- classical education was based on Confucian ideas
- the education system was elitist
what happened to the literacy rates in China?
- stood at 64% by 1964
- Pinyin was created as the official language of China to simplify all the many regional differences
- Winter schools were opened for peasants (42 million peasants attended 1951-52)
what were the failures of educational reform?
- Education remained elitist
- Education was underfunded (only 6.4% of budget was spent on culture and education in 1952)
- The standard or rural teaching was very poor
- Winter schools were not very effective
how did education collapse after 1966?
- university and schools closed during the cultural revolution
- over 130 million young people did not receive any education
- many teachers were killed and books destroyed
- after the Red Guards were disbanded the young were sent to work in the countryside and still received no education
what was the largest cause of disease in rural China?
- due to living on the verge of starvation epidemic diseases were very common
- Waterborne diseases were the most common due to the use of human manure as fertiliser (e.g typhoid, cholera, e.c.t)
what were Barefoot Doctors?
doctors trained for 6 months and sent into rural areas to provide basic care - could only provide basic health care - by 1973 over 1 million doctors had been trained
