THEME 4 - Women and Family

Question 1

What was the status of women like prior to 1949?

Answer 1

China had been a patriarchal society prior to 1949. It was heavily based on Confucian values with strict obedience. It was duty for women to obey the men, either their husbands, eldest sons or fathers.

Question 2

What did Clause Six of the Communist Common Program of 1949 promise?

Answer 2

It promised the abolition of the resitrictions against women. This gave them more equality in politics, economic, cultural and educational spheres. It also gave women the chance to marry who they wanted.

Question 3

Why did the family need to be eradicated in the eyes of the CCP?

Answer 3

The communists wanted to remove all influence from China’s feudal past;
- family relations embodied confucian ideas of obedience to elders
- families existence encourage bourgeoisie mindset as it tempted people to attach to personal possesions.

Question 4

What was foot-binding and why was it carried out?

Answer 4

Involved the breaking of toes of young girls and binding them back under the foot. This painful process was to make the foot smaller, which was seen as a sign of beauty in men. It also restricted women’s ability to move.

Question 5

How significant was the banning of foot-binding?

Answer 5

The practice of foot-binding was challenged in 19th century and outlawed in 1911. It still remained in some rural areas until the communists decided to ban it.

Question 6

Why was Mao particularly concerned about arranged marriages?

Answer 6

He heavily disliked arranged marriages as he himself had rebelled over a arranged marriage when he was 14

Question 7

What was the Marriage Law?

Answer 7

A law passed in 1950 which changed the basis of marriage from a contractual agreement between families to freely done by two individuals.

Question 8

What evidence is there to suggest Mao was pro women’s rights prior to 1949?

Answer 8

During the occupation of the Red Army in Jiangxi and Yanan areas in the civil war, the army was instructed to treat women with respect.
Mao had also written articles condemning arranged marriages after a young woman killed herself rather than get married.

Question 9

What were the main clauses of the Marriage Law (1950)?

Answer 9

• Arranged marriage and Bride prices were outlawed
• men and women in arranged marriages could divorce.
• divorce was more readily available
• concubinage and polygamy were outlawed

Question 10

What is a concubine?

Answer 10

financially supporting women as mistresses

Question 11

How did the Communists implement the marriage law and why was this equally significant?

Answer 11

They used a large propaganda campaign in the press, radio and leaflets. They party organised drama troupes to take plays that publicised the new laws in villages.
Party cadres urged to check that the law was being applied.

Question 12

What limitations were there of the Marriage Law?

Answer 12

There was strong traditional resistance to the marriage law - especially in muslim areas.
A second propaganda was launched in 1953 but was undermined by the lack of support by party cadres. It took many more years before attitudes to marriage and women changed significantly.

Question 13

How did the land redistribution campaign (1950) appear to alter the lives of women?

Answer 13

Helped to advance the cause for women’s emancipation as it gave the chance for women to own land privately in their own name.

Question 14

Why was the women’s benefit in land distribution campaign ‘short-lived’?

Answer 14

After the new collectivisation scheme, neither men nor women were able to own land only a few years later.

Question 15

Why, in theory, were the communes set to benefit women?

Answer 15

There were equal working conditions in agriculture and industry for both men and women. in the communes.
Women were encouraged to work as the communes had creches for children

Question 16

Why was the reality of the communes far less liberating for women that expected?

Answer 16

Women earned fewer work points due to being less involved in heavy labour
- cadres enforcing often had traditional views on women. They were often intolerant of women’s attitudes during their periods.
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Question 17

How did the famine impact women’s lives?

Answer 17

As the amount of food decreased, women fell to an even greater disadvantage. As the more productive workers took more rations, women and their children were often left with scraps. This incited more women to go into prostitution and divorce rates rose.
- During the famine, some men would sell their wives in return for food.

Question 18

Why might the speed in which the commune system was implemented have caused problems for women?

Answer 18

The communes were introduced to help try to decrease dependencies on the family by encouraging women to go into less motherly roles. However, this often backfired and women simply had less work.

Question 19

How did the famine impact the family?

Answer 19

The very young and very old were impacted as wives and children were often sold so there were fewer mouths to feed. Old people were then left to fend for themselves.

Question 20

How did the Cultural Revolution impact the family structure in the radical phase?

Answer 20

The structure of family as considered as a “four old” and attacked in the radical part of the CR. Children were told that Mao was their true parents and were encouraged to denounce their parents if they clung to old attitudes.

Question 21

How did the Cultural Revolution impact the family structure in the latter phase?

Answer 21

As the young red guards underwent rustication, much of their city lives were uprooted. Upon their return from the countryside, many struggled to reintegrate and were described as a “lost generation” for their missed schooling

Question 22

Why was population growth seen as positive in the PRC?

Answer 22

It helped Mao’s idea of mass moblitisation to implement policy. Therefore, Mao often celebrated the growth of family.

Question 23

Why were there worries over the population growth?

Answer 23

There grew to be lack of resources to aid the large population e.g. the great famine

Question 24

How did the CCP react to the population growth?

Answer 24

Contraceptives were publicly available to slow the population growth.
- Mao wanted birth rate to be reduced to 2% and launched propaganda to pressure mothers into marrying later and restricting family to 2 children. (this was an early predecessor to the one-child-policy in 1979)

Question 25

What changes were seen in employment for women?

Answer 25

Women entitled to same pay as men and there was much more employment opportunities, Women in the workforce quadrupled between 1949 to 1976.

Question 26

Why did many women not engage in opportunities in higher education?

Answer 26

It was not free or compulsory and the remaining pressure for more domestic roles deterred women from going to higher education - although there was now greater opportunity in higher education.

Question 27

What evidence is there of discrimination towards women in agricultural work?

Answer 27

Northern areas of china were slow to change their attitudes to women and therefore, they rarely worked in the fields. Men and women were still not treated equal despite the enforcement by the government.