Women in China
- Background: pre-Mao
- Historically, Chinese women had been among the most repressed in the world.
- Imperial China had been a patriarchal society, Confucian ideals held that a woman must obey her husband: Loyalty of minister and officials to the emperor, respect of children from their parents, obediences of wives to their husbands
- Very rare for women to hold positions of power, exception of Cixi
- Footbinding still practised. Arranged marriages were frequent. Many women were sold into marriages at a price based on how many children they would have.
- Having concubines was legal and common.
- Achievements
- Outlawed footbinding in regions where it still occurred.
- Marriage Reform Law of 1950:
- Concubines abolished
- Arranged marriages discontinued
- Paying of dowries and bride prices were forbidden
- Women (and men) who had been previously forced to marry were entitled to a divorce
- All marriages had to be officially recorded and registered
- Further laws passed in the 1950s
- Granted women the right to own and sell land and property
- Major advance as it broke the tradition whereby property dealings were controlled by men.
- Because men were deemed equal to women the number of working women quadrupled between 1949 to 1970, from 8 to 32%.
- Failures
- MAO
- In practice, Mao and the party often failed to respect equality.
- Mao in his personal life used or patronised women, becoming a notorious womaniser.
- CCP male-dominated system, few high ranking went to women. (only 13%)
- Divorce
- Many women used freedom within marriage to divorce and remarry multiple times. As a result PLA adding clause giving soldiers the legal right to overrule their wives’ plea for a divorce.
- Collectivisation programme ruined women being able to own their own property.
- Direct assault on the traditional Chinese family
- Despite their want for freedom, many women felt unhappy that their role as mothers were being written off as not necessary.
- CCP wanted a division of the traditional family that men and women were divided into separate quarters and only allowed to see each other during conjugal visits.
- Unchanging Peasant Attitudes
- Peasants complained that the new marriage laws interfered with their way of life, especially in predominantly Muslim regions.
- Areas such as Xinjiang women were supposed to take orders from the men in their family and were likely to be beaten if they disobeyed.
- Xinjiang’s four million women (2005) as being like a frog in a well: A woman is treated as a man’s possession. It is the duty of a woman to look after him, whether he is working the fields or in the house.’
- MAO
- The Famine (1958-61)
- Population and women suffered during the famine years with them not being able to provide for their children.
- Many children we starved.
- Many women left their families during the famine to provide more food to their children.
- Prostitution thrived as women offered themselves in return for food, in some area officials set up brothels for party use.
Minorities
- 8% of China’s population were ethnic minorities
- 1954 constitution – 5 autonomous regions: Tibet, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Mongolia
- Replaced local elites with CCP officials to impose socialist values on ethnic minorities
- Met with armed revolt by Muslim in Gansu which was put down with considerable force
- Cultural revolution saw increased persecution of ethnic minorities – resisted attempts by Red Guards to eliminate non-communist traditions
- Tibet
- 3m living in Tibet in 1949 – important as borders Russia and India
- Fiercest resistance
- Wanted liberation under the leadership of the Dalai Llama
- Tension between CCP and Tibetan authorities
- Failed to negotiate in 1954
- Large scale-rebellion in 1959 – suppressed by PLA
- Therefore DL went into exile
- Self immolation crises
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