Women: Education and Employment Flashcards
How did education for girls improve between 1949 and 1976? Give some statistics.
One sample of rural girls who started school between 1929 and 1949 showed that only 38% completed their primary education whereas 100% did so for those starting after 1959. By 1978, 45% of primary school children were girls.
What career opportunities became available for women? Give some examples.
Military service - In autumn 1949 the PLA enlisted unmarried, educated female students aged 18-19 for it’s military academies, specifically to be sent to the border region of Xinjiang in order to become wives for the soldiers stationed there.
In February 1951 an advertisement in the New Hunan Daily aimed to recruit female students to form a female work team to go to Xinjiang to exploit it’s valuable natural resources.
The advertisement offered a range of formerly unattainable incentives such as paid study in the Soviet Union, teaching advanced technology or becoming an actress in PLA entertainment troupes.
