Changes in Policy for Yanan Women, 1935-1947

Abstract

In the course of the Chinese revolution, the Communist Party has sought to replace the traditional political and economic system with a socialist one. To do this, Party leaders have worked to win the support of the population by implementing programs that would benefit the majority of people while, at the same time, move society toward socialism. In some cases, however, economic, political, and social realities, not Party ideology, have determined how these programs are formulated and carried out. The need to solve immediate problems has overshadowed, but not replaced long-term revolutionary goals. There are a number of examples of how reality has affected the formation of policy throughout the Party's history. One of these is the development of policy to raise the status of women in the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region. From the outset of the communist movement, Party leaders have paid particular attention to the problems of women. In principal, they believed that equality for women was crucial to