The Historical Transition of All-China Women’s Federation

Abstract

All China Woman’s Federation (ACWF) is the sole official institute dedicating to gender equality in China, and had served for more than 76 years of history. Recently, however, the recognition of the organization among the public has been noticeably falling. In hope to answer the question “why and through what process has the influence of ACWF fell”, the researcher explored the development of Chinese public’s perception over ACWF’s role during the 1946 - 1978 period, in which the organization first took shape, by chiefly looking into the A Brief History of Contemporary Chinese Women's Movement, a document written by a sub department of ACWF, largely academic and functions more as an historical research, and a list of most frequently used words by the largest, government funded Chinese newspaper People’s Daily in describing ACWF during the period. The researcher finds notable discrepancy between the two sources, which helps to explore the power dynamic of the ACWF and its direct supporter, the CPC government, as well as the image that CPC government has propagandized its people to think of the ACWF. The research functions as part of a longer research that examines the change of Chinese public’s recognition over ACWF for the entirety of its history.