On this day (September 9) in 1976 Chairman Mao died. For all the
attempts to paint Mao as a Chinese Stalin, it must be remembered that Mao emancipated Chinese women. The plight of women in China was always a concern to Mao despite his troubled relations with the many women in his life. In some of his earliest writings Mao bemoaned the Chinese practice of selling girls and the complete lack of economic opportunity outside of marriage and prostitution. The constitution that Mao introduced to China and the 1960 marriage and divorce laws gave Chinese women greater rights than existed in many western nations at the time.
Although China remains a patriarchal society the independence of women in China today stands in stark contrast to many other nations in Asia (i.e., India) and other parts of the world....
Labels: human rights, mao
# posted by Sinomania! : 9/09/2009 10:55:00 AM