The Changing Status of Women / the mature and extent of Change Flashcards
What was the subservient role of Chinese women within Society before 1949?
- birth of a daughter=not a cause for celebration. Many baby girls were victims of infanticide.
- arranged marriages were common.
- concubinage: wife might have to share their husband with one: live in mistress kept for sexual favours while the wife carried out chores.
- Three Obediences: father when young, husband when married, sons when mother
- girls had no educational opportunities. 1930s rural China: only 1% of females above 7 acquired basic literacy skills // 30% for males
What was foot binding?
Physically crippled many women
A girl would often have her feet bound at 6– toes turned under her feet and held there by tightly wound bandages
Designed to stunt their growth: small feet sexually appealing to prospective suitors: higher “bride-price” for a more attractive wife
What did Mao the murderer think of marriage?
Mao attacked the “rottenness of the marriage system” with “no freedom of choice in love”.
“Women”, said Mao, “hold up half the sky”
He damned marriages as “indirect rape”
What was Mao’s 1950 New Marriage Law?
- concubinage and arranged marriages banned 🎎
- husbands and wives were to have equal status in the home👫
- the extraction of money or gifts in return for marriage was prohibited 💰❌
- a wife could inherit her husband’s property🔛
- divorce was made much easier✔️☑️
Why was the New Marriage Law not entirely effective?
Led to:
- increased divorce rates ➗🔝
- husbands lost what they perceived as a financial investment 📉
- violence broke out in poorer peasant families (armed mobs attempted to violently reclaim divorced wives)🚶♀️⛏
- property rights gained by the law were lost when Mao collectivised private land holdings in the mid-1950s🙏🏼
What was the impact of collectivisation and the communes on women’s lives?
- Women forced to WORK on the land
- Meant to make them equal but they still took responsibility for DOMESTIC chores
- Forced to do tasks they were physically ILL-SUITED for: ploughing fields
- Mothers left their children at communal KINDARGARTENS— conditions poor and dirty, staff not well trained
Diseases and death were commonplace
What impact did the famine of the late 50s have on women’s lives?
Communes provided them with very little food
Many turned to prostitution
Others committed suicide
How was food given to women in the communes?
They received little food from the communal kitchens
Food was allocated based on work points— the amount of physical labour performed
Talk to me all about sexual abuse in the communes xoxo
And pregnant gals?
Common
Expectant mothers forced to work throughout their pregnancy: oft. resulted in miscarriages
What was Mao’s and the CCPs attitude to women’s subservient role?
Mao was critical of their subservient role in Chinese Society and politics from an early age.
The CCP called women: “an indispensable force in defeating the enemy and building a new China”
What was The Women’s Association?
Mao’s belief in mobilisation of the masses was applied to women
Dedicated to encouraging political activism among women
Official membership: 76m
Campaigned against:
- prostitution
- domestic violence
Encouraged women to confront and denounce men who had beaten their wives.
What were the changes in marriage— did they reeeeeeeeally improve the lives of Chinese women?
Some evidence to suggest that the New Marriage Law and propaganda were effective.
By the early 1960s, child marriages and organised marriages had become very rare
Changes in the education of women
Succeeded in encouraging more families to send their daughters to school
One sample of rural girls who shafted school between 1929 and 1949–
• only 38% completed primary education
Starting after 1959?
100% did so
By 1978– 45% of primary school kids were girls
Why was there previously no incentive for families to send their daughters to school?
they’d soon be leaving home— and would rather they work in productive labour than receive an education,
for which the parents would experience 0 economic benefit
Military service— improving the lives of Chinese women
The communist regime created new military academies to train a modern army. 🏫
The PLA provided an opportunity for women:
Young women were encouraged to join 🏗👧🏽💣
They could escape rural poverty 👄🥟 &
possibly be promoted to officer rank👩🏾✈️ (a status unheard of for women in China before 1949)
Evidence of improvement in the status of women:
— marriage
Many took advantage of the opportunities provided
- escape unhappy marriages (divorce) 🏃🏾♀️
- no longer trapped in arranged marriages: relationships for love, personal gain 💏🤳🏾
- some courted party cadres— knew the relationship could improve their
Economic security, 💷💶💴 Social opportunities 🚬🧝🏾♀️
Evidence of improvement in the status of women:
“Speak bitterness” meetings
Example of women’s greater sense of self-confidence
Willing to stand up and declare their grievances at these meetings (organised to denounce the regimes enemies)
Could publicly declare an opinion!! Major change!! Some found it EMPOWERING!!
👸🏽🧠👄🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣
Evidence of improvement in the status of women:
Politicised
The Cultural Revolution meant women became politicised
- They wore the Maoist UNIFORM— this crashed a sense of equality,
- young women could TRAVEL across China
- and be given important LEADERSHIP roles in the Red Guards
Women like Jiang Qing: could even rise to hold leadership roles in the Party!
Evidence of improvement in the status of women:
Propaganda
Maoist propaganda challenged traditional gender views
Ballets (eg Red Detatchment of Women) glorified women as heroes fighting the Civil War
What were the problems of changing traditional views towards women?
Male attitudes
Traditional practices
Traditional male attitudes were slow to change.
Alongside the work that the communist regime expected them to do, husbands still expected them to do domestic work/ childcare
Traditional practices (arranged marriages, foot binding etc) continued in far, remote areas, like Xingjiang
What were the problems of changing traditional views towards women?
Party cadres
Many party cadres shared the traditional views of women
They didn’t enforce legislation like the New Marriage Law
Communist leaders: eg. Ding Ling complained women weren’t even treated equally by their fellow communists
Song Qingling— prominent, high ranking official— complained that her views were not treated equally
