The Changing Status of Women / the mature and extent of Change Flashcards

1
Q

What was the subservient role of Chinese women within Society before 1949?

A
  • 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
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2
Q

What was foot binding?

A

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

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3
Q

What did Mao the murderer think of marriage?

A

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”

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4
Q

What was Mao’s 1950 New Marriage Law?

A
  • 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✔️☑️
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5
Q

Why was the New Marriage Law not entirely effective?

A

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🙏🏼
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6
Q

What was the impact of collectivisation and the communes on women’s lives?

A
  • 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

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7
Q

What impact did the famine of the late 50s have on women’s lives?

A

Communes provided them with very little food

Many turned to prostitution
Others committed suicide

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8
Q

How was food given to women in the communes?

A

They received little food from the communal kitchens

Food was allocated based on work points— the amount of physical labour performed

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9
Q

Talk to me all about sexual abuse in the communes xoxo

And pregnant gals?

A

Common

Expectant mothers forced to work throughout their pregnancy: oft. resulted in miscarriages

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10
Q

What was Mao’s and the CCPs attitude to women’s subservient role?

A

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”

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11
Q

What was The Women’s Association?

A

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.

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12
Q

What were the changes in marriage— did they reeeeeeeeally improve the lives of Chinese women?

A

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

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13
Q

Changes in the education of women

A

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

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14
Q

Why was there previously no incentive for families to send their daughters to school?

A

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

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15
Q

Military service— improving the lives of Chinese women

A

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)

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16
Q

Evidence of improvement in the status of women:

— marriage

A

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 🚬🧝🏾‍♀️
17
Q

Evidence of improvement in the status of women:

“Speak bitterness” meetings

A

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!!

👸🏽🧠👄🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣

18
Q

Evidence of improvement in the status of women:

Politicised

A

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!

19
Q

Evidence of improvement in the status of women:

Propaganda

A

Maoist propaganda challenged traditional gender views

Ballets (eg Red Detatchment of Women) glorified women as heroes fighting the Civil War

20
Q

What were the problems of changing traditional views towards women?

Male attitudes
Traditional practices

A

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

21
Q

What were the problems of changing traditional views towards women?

Party cadres

A

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