Social and Cultural Changes - Changing Status Of Women Flashcards
(18 cards)
How did Mao personally view women?
- Mao said women ‘hold up half the sky’
- the communist party called women ‘an indispensable force in defeating the enemy and building a new China’
What were traditional attitudes to women like?
- women forced into arranged marriages
- those married into wealthy families had to share husband with concubines
- women forced to marry to provide children for new husbands
What was foot binding?
- girl would often have her feet bound at age 6
- prevented feet from growing normally
- small feet were seen as beautiful and sexually appealing
- significant proportion of Han Chinese practiced foot binding despite its ban in 1911
What were traditional attitudes to marriage?
- for peasants economic burden as families were inclined to giving a dowry
- desperate families resorted to infanticide
- marriages seen as very transactional
- husbands treated wives as private property
- wives expected to be subservient
What was the relationship like between wives and mother in laws?
- wives also subservient to mother in law
- mothers very jealous of sons wife, could be spiteful
- wives given most backbreaking chores
What were traditional educational opportunities like for women?
- girls not provided with educational opportunities
- no incentive as parents wouldn’t receive economic benefit
- survey rural China 1930s only 2.2% females had received schooling
How did the new marriage law (1950) improve marriage for women?
- women received legal equality, could hold property or seek divorce
- paying of dowries or bride-prices forbidden, age of marriage 18
- marriages could not result from coercion
- By 1966-76 organised marriage had dropped to 0.8%
What were the limitations of the new marriage law (1950)?
*1.4 million divorce petitions filed in 1953
* widespread violence broke out as people attempted to reclaim divorced wives
* many cadres refused to uphold the law in local areas as they feared unrest
* traditional Muslim communities in Xinjiang refused to challenge long-held customs
How was collectivisation and communes meant to impact the lives of women?
- the GLF called for the utilisation of women as productive labour
- Mao claimed enabling women to work would lead to ‘liberation through labour’
- those who matched men referred to as ‘iron women’
- childcare was to be centralised and food prep alleviated by communal canteens
What was the problem of communal kindergartens?
- mothers distressed by leaving there children at communal kindergarten, could be separated for weeks
- housed in ramshackle buildings
- poorly trained staff
- low standard of care led to disease, in one kindergarten 90% children got sick
Why did communal canteens not necessarily improve life for women?
- aimed to release women from responsibility of feeding family
- food allocated on basis of amount of physical labour performed, women likely to receive less than men
- when food ran low women often neglected
Was the work points system beneficial for women?
- women still received less ‘work points’ than men regardless of productivity or skill
- realities of physical strength meant women were limited to a maximum of 8 points
- provided disincentive for women to offer their labour and led to reversion to more traditional roles
What are some examples of women facing abuse and discrimination during collectivisation and the GLF?
- mothers forced to work throughout pregnancy leading to miscarriage
- as families separated women became victims of advances from cadres
- one secretary investigated for raping 27 women
- in Hunan factory bosses forced females to work naked
How did the famine further worsen the situation for women?
- as famine spread many women forced into sex work for food
- suicide rates increased
What was the Women’s Association?
- central committee committed to a genuine role for the association
- 40,000 staff in 83 cities
- official membership of 76 million
- set up educational and practical training for women
- provided a platform for women to be involved in political activism
The impact of the cultural revolution on women?
- men and women wore same Maoist uniform
- many women led Red guards on violent denunciations
- once politicised many stayed involved, women comprised around 20% party cadres between 1970-74
- exalted as heroes in revolutionary ballets
How did education and employment change for women?
- 100% rural girls who started after 1959 completed primary education
- by 1978, 45% primary school students were girls
- PLA enlisted women to military academies to be wives to soldiers, military career a chance to show commitment to the regime
- advertisements offered chance for women to form female work teams, included benefits such as paid study in the Soviet Union
What were the problems of changing traditional views?
- women still had the less influential jobs
- wome still expected to undertake most of the household and childcare chores
- divorcees often struggled, cut off from family support
