Impact Study Of The Early Republic Civil Society On The Education Of Women

A famous historical scholar called Zhu Ying once said, when the state power is strong and centralized, non-governmental organizations will be weakened, but when the state power is weak and can not set up centralization system, non-governmental organizations will be powerful. During the prophase of Republic of China, the political situation was so unstable that central government could not exercise effective leadership. Therefore, patriotic personage established organizations in order to discuss social problems and find out a way to save the nation. As a result, non-governmental organizations sprang up exuberantly. They were widely spread and active. As a strong power, they had made ever lasting contributions to the reform and progress of Chinese society. In the progression of educational development, non-governmental organizations had also played an important role. Because during this period, with the upsurge of women's lib, developing women education had become a irresistible trend, but the Northern Warlords were locked in continuous dogfights, having no time considering the circumstances of education , especially women education. So some non- governmental groups that were interested in women's problems and part of women organizations naturally undertook the task of reforming and popularizing women education, which can not be written off in modern Chinese women education history.As a historical investigation of those non-governmental organizations that had done a lot to develop Chinese women education, this thesis consists of five parts.The first part is foreword, which mainly introduces the genesis, current situation, scope, research methods of this thesis.The second part analyzes the historical causes why those non-governmental organizations developed women education during the prophase of Republic of China. These causes are the development of women education during the last stage of Qing Dynasty, the upsurge of bourgeois-democratic revolution and women's lib, and the ineffective leadership of central government.The third part places emphasis on the historical activities that non-governmental organizations had carried out to develop women education. These activities can be mainly summarized as follows: Started women publications to open women's minds; gave reports to enlighten the great majority of women; made appeal or fought for the equal educational rights and interests between sexes; convened conferences, passed motions, reformed women education; established different kinds of female schools to train women for profession; initiate work-study movement, work half day and study half day.The fourth part passes judgment on the activities that non-governmental organizations had carried out to develop women education. These activities had elevated the status of women education in education system, promoted the establishment of different kinds of female school, given impetus to women's lib. However, these activities were mainly limited in big cities and did not last long.The fifth part concludes that development of women's education requires women's awareness, healthy social system and the power of non-governmental organizations.