18. The Changing Role of Women

WOMEN WOMEN WOMEN !!!!!!!!!!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Why did Mao want better treatment for women?

• To achieve a communist society

• The whole population had to be able to work in order to advance communism

How were women treated in imperial China?

• For centuries, Chinese culture had treated women as second-class citizens. They were the properties first of their fathers, then of their husbands, and widows were even under the control of their eldest sons. The birth of a son was celebrated, but a daughter was regarded as a costly expense. Girls received little, if any, education and many were pushed by their fathers into an arranged marriage when they were teenagers.

• Potential husbands expected to be paid a dowry once the marriage had happened.

• Furthermore, women could not own property, the constitution did not allow them to vote, and while their husbands could divorce them, wives did not have the right to divorce their husbands. Rich and powerful men often kept women as concubines.

What did the 1950 Marriage Law state?

• both men and women had equal rights to request a divorce

• men and women in arranged marriages were entitled to divorce their partner

• women were given property rights to own, buy and sell property

• infanticide was forbidden.

• keeping concubines was forbidden

• both men and women had equal rights to request a divorce

• men and women in arranged marriages were entitled to divorce their partner

• women were given property rights to own, buy and sell property

• infanticide was forbidden (male children were valued much more than girls, because they believed without a son there would be no descendants + girls were expensive and needed a dowry. so often baby girls were killed)

What were other changes made to the roles of women?

• 1953: introducing birth control to stem large families and began training midwives to make birth safe

• 1953: women were given equal voting rights

• The All China Women’s Federation, established in 1949 to promote policies towards women, sent officials into rural areas to encourage women to participate in politics at local levels by joining committees and party groups.

What were the positive impacts of the CCP’s policies towards marriage?

• The average age of marriage rose in the 1950s.

• Cases of infanticide were reduced.

What were the negative impacts of the CCP’s policies towards marriage?

• Peasants opposed the Marriage Law, especially in the western areas where there was a large Muslim population.

• The use of matchmakers to arrange marriages continued.

• Rural marriages continued with the exchange of gifts.

• Women who divorced their husbands were treated as outcasts.

What were the positive impacts of the CCP’s policies towards family life?

• In 1954, China’s biggest pharmaceutical company began producing contraceptives.

• TChildbirth became safer with the use of trained midwives and procedures such as sterilisation of medical equipment.

What were the negative impacts of the CCP’s policies towards family life?

There was a resistance to birth control in rural areas

What were the positive impacts of the CCP’s policies towards economic roles with regards to women?

• Literacy levels among women rose.

• The proportion of women in the workforce rose from 8 per cent in 1949 to 29 per cent by the mid-1960s.

What were the negative impacts of the CCP’s policies towards economic roles with regards to women?

• Women’s property rights did not last long; private property was outlawed in the campaign for collectivisation.

• Husbands resorted to wife-selling during the famine.

What were the positive impacts of the CCP’s policies towards political roles with regards to women?

• In the 1953 election to the National People’s Congress, 12 per cent of the deputies elected were women.

• The first Minister of Health and the first Minister of Justice in the PRC were both women.

• Between 1949 and 1962, women’s participation in politics increased, with women being elected to neighbourhood committees and co-operatives.

What were the negative impacts of the CCP’s policies towards political roles with regards to women?

• In 1949, 69 women were elected to the Central People’s Political Consultative Committee, accounting for just 10 per cent of its membership.

• Women's participation in politics was opposed by men but there was some acceptance that women could hold minor roles.