Women Flashcards
According to traditional values in Chinese culture, what were the three obediences for women?
To their father when typing
To husband when married
To son in old age
What happened traditionally with a wife’s role in the house in terms of relationships with the others?
Marriages were typically arranged
Women could also be sold as concubines
Domestic abuse was common
Mothers in law treated wives really badly
“No fighting back when beaten, no answering back when cursed”
If husbands family were poorer, they would pay the wife’s family effectively buying the wife
In traditional china, how many women had literacy skills and how many went to school?
1% literacy skills
2% went to school
What law was passed in 1950 giving women more equality
Marriage law
Outline 4 things the marriage law 1950 introduced ?
Women could own property
Women could seek divorce
Dowries were banned
Marriages have to result from free will
Evidence of success of the marriage law?
1940s -30% marriages were arranged
1966-77 0.8% were arranged
What were the main problems of the marriage law 1950?
Not implemented in Muslim areas like Xinjiang
Violence broke out in attempt to reclaim wives during divorce proceedings
Cadres were hostile to law and refused to uphold it in certain areas. E.g. Didn’t grant divorces for some women if they were friends with the husbands
Evidence of divorce rates increasing?
1.4 million petitions filed in 1953
What was the impact of collectivisation with women and children?
Children sent to kindergartens that providing appalling levels of care
Disease common
Beijing 90% of children got sick in one kindergarten
Kindergartens then collapsed at the end of GLF leaving women to take care of children as well.
What was the reality of giving women “equality to work” in the communes ??
Mao doubled the work force in terms of enabling women to work
He gained more productive labour
However women still largely took responsibility for domestic chores like childcare and cleaning
What happened with the work points system?
Why does it support that women did not get equality with work?
Men could receive up to 10 work points
Women could only receive 8
Putting them at a disadvantage
Reinforced the traditional notion of inferiority of women.
What happened with women and the communal canteens ?
Meant to alleviate women from cooking
But food was allocated on basis of physical labour so women were likely to receive less
How were women subjected to abuse and discrimination during the communes?
Cadres would take advantage of their positions
Women often sold sex for food
Hunan / local factory boss made women work naked
In one commune, pregnant mothers who refused to work were forced to undress and break ice
What did Frank Dikotter say about rape?
“Rape spread like a contagion through a distressed moral landscape”
What organisation was set up to get women into politics ?
Women’s association
