Women and the State

A second important theme in this literature is the relationship between Chinese women and the Maoist state. When Mao and the CCP gained power in 1949, the lives of women in China changed dramatically. Mao formulated the official position on women in the PRC by using Engel’s theory (from Fourier) on the relationship between women’s equality and class struggle which stated, in brief, that “the degree of women’s emancipation is the natural measure of the general emancipation” (Wang: 1998, 27). Equality between women and men became official state policy as a representation of the success of communism. He enacted legislation which outlawed oppressive marital practices deemed “feudal” (Confucian and “backward”) and legalized divorce. Further, women were encouraged to participate in wage labor with creches for child care and other sources of support organized to alleviate their domestic responsibilities.

Many women in this literature reflect on the history of their lives under Mao and describe how during that period they believed that they were equal members of society. They saw women in government positions in unprecedented numbers, they worked in factories and fields, they chose their husbands more often than ever before and participated in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1978) as Red Guards, receiving reeducation in the countryside, and even acting violently in local outbursts.

Understanding the history of Women’s Studies in China depends on examining the relationship between women and the Maoist state. Following Mao’s death and the implementation of economic reform, women began to question the equality they believed they possessed for decades. Many of these women locate the roots of contemporary Women’s Studies in the processes of women struggling to comprehend their relationship to and involvement with the Maoist state. Were men and women really equal as they had believed or had Mao set a top down standard of behavior based on men to which women were encouraged to aspire? How dependent on the state were women for the equality they felt? Where were women’s ideas of equality in the state policy? What did women want for themselves? Is the socialization of domestic labor an adequate solution for inequality between women and men? What does equality have to do with liberation? The importance of the relationship between women and the state cannot be underestimated in this literature.