Introduction

Abstract

Last year a group of women in Asian studies met to discuss the role of women in the process of social change from the Chinese and Vietnamese revolutions to the crisis-ridden Indian subcontinent. Many were currently active in the American women's movement and shared the conviction that women, though powerless politically throughout much of history, through the work they do and the conditions under which it is performed, have a tremendous influence on the development of every society. It was obvious to all that there was not only a lack of information and analysis, but that even the work that had been done focused on the “woman question” in misleading or inadequate ways. The implications—social, political, economic and psychological—of the condition of women within patriarchal and class society have only recently begun to be seriously discussed in the West. Yet in Asian studies there has been no attempt to probe the relationship between feminism and social change and revolution in a coherent and systematic way. This Special Issue of the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars on Asian Women, Part I of two parts, covers India and China, and other issues to follow later this year will cover Japan, Vietnam, and other parts of Southeast Asia.