Womens Freedom during Chinas Revolutionary Period Essay -- Asian His

Wo workforces Freedom during Chinas Revolutionary Period During the revolutionary extremity 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, womens progress resulted more than as a necessity of the war than the leaderships commitment to turn women. Furthermore, when tension arose between men and women, the leadership usually appeased men all over women. By not discussing the mentality of the political parties and the dynamics of the war, Hughes and Hughes critique lacks an account of the underlying motives that drove these parties to sometimes support women and other times rid of womens interests. Hughes and Hughes explain that male educators and members of the KMT now proclaimed Chinese women change state (H&H 237). However, Johnsons critique paints quite a different and more complex emancipation. The philosophies of the Chinese C ommunist Party (CCP) reflected undertones of feminist thought and consideration. The CCPs ideology developed in the early twentieth century as a result of a radical intellectual movement in urban areas composed of disillusioned students and professors. The CCP did recognize womens progressive demands and desires for twin rights. In 1922, at the Second National Congress, the Party established the Womens Department which aided womens revolutionary political activity (Johnson 41). The pronunciamento of the Second Congress responded to womens groups such as the Woman suffrage Alliance and the Alliance for the Womens Rights Movements by including objectives such as the exceptional right to vote for all workers and peasants, regardless of sex, and protect... ...ower in the war. Thus, it is difficult to esteem whether women did attain emancipation since emancipation under such a politically charged atmosphere seems rather tainted. In addition, when conflict arose between men and women , politics usually supported male interests. Hughes and Hughes do not richly illustrate the complex motives that drove these parties to either support or annul womens interests in order to maintain political unity. Thus, it is problematic to entirely read Hughes and Hughes critique because it lacks an in-depth discussion of the complex dynamics during the revolution. Works Cited Hughes, Sarah minor and Brady Hughes. Women in World History Readings from 1500 to the Present. Vol 2. New York M.E. Sharpe Inc., 1997. Johnson, Kay Ann. Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China. Chicago The University of Chicago Press, 1983.