Social developments- Women Flashcards
ways Women status increased
- Footbinding banned in 1949
- although still continued in rural areas
- Marriage laws 1950
significance of Marriage law 1950 for women
gave women the right to divorce
- marriage no longer a contract between men ( Husband and father of bride)
after 1st year of marragie law over 1 million women divorced to escape arranged marriage
Mao himself against arranged marriages rejected one at 14
significance of Marriage law and general rights
child marriages outlawed
- women must be over 18
arranged marriage dowries banned
ways women’s right’s did not improve
1950 land reform gave women land rights for the first time
- but most of the land was seized by the mid 1950s
- the rights = shortlived
Communal life for women
Communes should’ve helped women in theory however reality =
- women overworked expected to contribute to household work + field work
in communes women earned fewer work points than men because they produced less
women during the Great leap forward 1958-62
status of women + life quality = poor
- many women forced into prostitution
- wife selling common in some provinces
1959-60 15 million less children being born women to weak to give birth
