Social Policies 1949-76 Flashcards
Argument
Short Term yes, Long Term no
1950 Marriage Law P1
Outlawed arranged marriages and dowries, made divorce available in equal terms and allowed women to keep property when they married. It also banned concubinage and polygamy. The widespread impact of this policy is shown by the fact over 1 million used it to extricate themselves from arranged marriages. Moreover, banned foot-binding and launched the 1950s land distribution campaign which gave women the chance to own land in their name for the first time. This was a huge change from a patriarchal society based on Confucian and San Gang values.
P1 analysis for successes
As a result, it is clear that
government social policies did improve the lives of Chinese women because theywere given more
freedom, opportunity and status whereas before they played a subservient role in society.
P1- However,
these benefits were not sustained in the long-term. Examples
For example, further policies undermined the
progress of the movement, such as the Communes which took away their right to own land. The
communal system meant that women earned fewer working points than men due to the fact that
heavy physical labour was involved, so got paid less if piece rate pay was in place, and they were
treated more harshly as cadres responsible for enforcing discipline held traditional attitudes.
P1- disadvantages
The
Cultural Revolution also worsened the position of women all round. Causes of emancipation went
backwards because class ratherthan gender issues were considered more important in this, and
their role within the family was undermined by the attacks on the ‘four olds’. Moreover, the ‘Great
Leap Forward’ resulted in a famine that reversed the progress of the marriage laws, leading to wife-
selling and prostitution.
P1 analysis for disadvantages
Therefore, it can be argued that while there was immediate positive
changes for women when Mao came to power, there was less emphasis on this as the revolution
progressed, suggesting that his aim was simply to win the hearts and minds of the people to
consolidate his power and his desire to improve lives was not genuine; women made up half of
population, Mao referred to them as holding up half of the sky, without their support, revolution
could not be achieved.
P1- what further shows how equality was neverre ached and while many aspects
of women’s lives were improved, the effects of this policy were limited.
By 1976, women only made up 1/3 of the workforce, and the chances for
career progression up management structures were particularly limited by male domination further
of the hierarchy. Moreover, women only made up 13% of the Party and were not taken seriously by
their male counterparts.
P2- The improvements that the Communist Party made to education could be argued to have improved
the lives of society.
By mid 1950s, a national system of primary education had been set up and
higher education was expanded. In order to help the spread of literacy, Pinyin was introduced, which
was a modernised form of phonetic Mandarin; all of the sounds of Mandarin were given a particular
symbol meaning it was much more straight forward to learn and write.
P2- Educational policy was
hugely successful:
the national literacy rate rose from 2% in 1949 to 64% in 1964. As a result,
people’s lives improved because there were increasing job prospects and more academic
opportunities. Young people from all backgrounds were given greater life chances, allowing fora
greater standard of living in the long term.
P2: However, there were limitations to this campaign.
For
example, many elitist elements of the old system lived on, suggesting that the lives of some people
were improved more than others. Key schools attracted the best teachers and places were reserved. for the children of high ranking party and government officials. Moreover, during the Cultural
Revolution, the education of 130 million young people stopped and there was further disruption
during the rustication campaign. This meant that, despite the early successes of the campaign, the
whole purpose of education was undermined after the revolution so its benefits were short-lived.
Therefore, while education was improved, in the long term the progress was unravelled.
P3- Furthermore, social policy could be argued to have improved lives because healthcare was yastly
reformed.
During the Cultural Revolution, one million medical trainees, known as barefoot doctors,
were sent to provide rudimentary medical help to the rural peasantry. They promoted simple
hygiene, preventative healthcare and family planning and treated common diseases. The fact that
90% of villages were involved in the scheme by 1976 shows how this policy improved many lives, as
a huge proportion of the peasantry were given access to medical treatment that they had previously
been without. Additionally, a series of patriotic health movements were introduced which
propaganda drives led by teams of party workers who explained to the peasantry the importance of
hygiene and the link between dirt and disease. There was some success in reducing the death rate
from water borne diseases by encouraging the digging of deeper wells for drinking water and
promoting more careful disposal of human waste. Moreover, there was a concerted campaign to
educate the peasantry about the need to control the snails at spread schistosomiasis, a serious
abdominal infection responsible for many deaths in this period. The significant health improvements
can be seen from the life expectancy rising from 41 years in 1950 to 62 years in 1970 and the infant
mortality rates falling.
P3 analysis
Therefore, social policy did improve the lives of the people because it meant
that more aspects of society had access to live-saving treatment, whereas it had previously been
limited to the urban class, so the policy helped in promoting equal access and it removed the fear of
death by disease.
P3- However, the policy was limited in many ways.
Government spending on
healthcare was never sufficient to fulfil the hopes of the party and facilities in hospitals were limited.
Therefore, it is clear that people’s lives were enhanced because health was massively improved,
however there was still potential for lives to be improved further, since the barefoot doctors were
not professional doctors so health problems often were left uncured due to cost -cutting training
methods.
Conclusion
While the social policies introduced by the Communists were
successfulto an extent, for example women were liberated in many ways, and education as well as
health care provision massively improved, the impact was short-lived. Lives were only improved
initially, and society were overlooked in favour of ideological gains in the long-term. I believe that
Mao had ulterior motives for launching social reforms, for example gaining support when his hold on
power was most vulnerable, and when this had been achieved, he no longer needed to prioritise
society’s issues. He instead focused on areas such as agriculture and industry for other objectives
like international prestige for his form of communism, therefore lives were only improved
temporarily for a political motive and they were superficial, never truly committed to improving
lives.
