Chairman Mao and Women's Rights in China

This investigation will cover women’s participation in the Long March, the People’s Republic of China Constitution in 1949, Mao’s policies for foot binding, the 1950 Marriage Law, and women’s increased participation in society. I will analyze journal articles and books from Western and Asian authors to evaluate various historians’ views on Communists’ policies towards women and the effects they had on Communists’ rise to power. Kellee Tsai’s Women and the state in post-1949 rural China and John King Fairbank’s “The Great Chinese Revolution: 1800-1985” are two of the principle sources and will be evaluated. Part B: Summary of Evidence Women’s Participation in Long March Mao’s uprising in Hunan, known as the Long March, allowed women to participate in the movement as equal and important comrades (some women even abandoned their own new babies to continue marching), prompting them to participate in the revolution (Lewis 59). Paying attention to women’s problems and protecting their rights were important goals of the Communists to ensure that the women would stay enthusiastic for participating in the revolution (Hodes 225).

Dover Publications, 2004. Fennell, Dorothy E. "Common Sense and a Little Fire: Women and Working-Class Politics in the United States, 1900-1965," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, v49 n4 (1996): July, pp. 773-774. Keep, Christopher. "The cultural work of the Type-Writer Girl," Victorian Studies, V40 n3 (1997): Spring, pp.

“Women Rulers in Imperial China.” Nan Nü 15-2 (2013): 179-218. Twitchett, Denis, and J. Wechsler Howard. "Kao-tsung (reign 649–83) and the Empress Wu: the Inheritor and the Usurper". In The Cambridge History of China. 242-89: Cambridge University Press, 1979.

However, in Chinese and many other societies, “homemaker” is thought to be the only role for women and not considered to be one of great value. It is not surprising that after thousands of years, the transformation of the Chinese society still reflects the patriarchal history of traditional China and the defining characteristics that define women in a submissive role to men. This paper will examine the attitudes and feelings toward women, give examples of women in leadership positions throughout the history of China, discuss their inability to bring forth change to the patriarchal society and the modern day status of women. Since as early as the 7th century BC, gender inequality in China has been an on going problem from before the birth of a child until after its death. The "We want a boy" mentality still exists today in Chinese thinking when it comes to young couples planning to start a family.

Women's Freedom during China's Revolutionary Period During the revolutionary period in China from 1921 to 1934, although there were undercurrents of an actual feminist movement, according to Kay Ann Johnson in Women, the Family & Peasant Revolution in China, women’s progress resulted more as a necessity of the war than the leadership’s commitment to emancipate women. Furthermore, when tension arose between men and women, the leadership usually appeased men over women. By not discussing the mentality of the political parties and the dynamics of the war, Hughes and Hughes’ critique lacks an explanation of the underlying motives that drove these parties to sometimes support women and other times reject women’s interests. Hughes and Hughes explain that “male educators and members of the KMT now proclaimed Chinese women emancipated” (H&H 237). However, Johnson’s critique paints quite a different and more complex emancipation.

Robson, Ruthann. "The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History: Marriage." Houghton Mifflin Study Center. 19 Nov. 2005. http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/women/html/wh_022200_marriage.htm. "Women in Society: Britain."

Print. Zuo, Jiping. "Rethinking Family Patriarchy And Women's Positions In Presocialist China." Journal Of Marriage & Family 71.3 (2009): 542-557. Academic Search Premier.

Cliff Notes. 1994. The China Bride. 23 March 2000. http://www.chinabride.com/gen/whyasia.html Chinese –American Women in The United States. Liu, Spring.

EBSCOHost. University at Albany Library, Albany. 11 November 2002. Gale Group. “Women’s Reproductive Rights in Columbia-A Shadow Report.” Contemporary Women’s Issues (December 1998).

Chinese Women in America: A Pictorial History. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1989. (several found in Gale Literary Database t)v-(http://www.galenet.com/servlet/GLD/hits?c...n=10&1=d&NA=Amy+Tan=&The+Joy+-Luck+Club)