Walking Out Of Home:Study On Women’s Taking Up Occupation In Shanghai Form 1958 To 1962

Shanghai was modern China’s earliest city, of which new career women emergenced. Till contemporary China, the frist climax which urban women took up an occupation appeared from 1958 to 1962 as a result of a large number of housewives flooding into work. My thesis aims to study this process. Though historians,sociologists,gender study and cultural study reserchers have already taken great interest in the topic of woman and occupation, the empirical history research of combing politics, economy and culture analyze is still rare.My thesis studys the issue in the latter way.By describing the performance of Party and government system, neighborhood cadres, production organizations, housewives in the complicated historical background, my thesis wants to show the diverse and complex historical phenomenon and evaluate the effect.Mobilizing women to work outside was an important policy of Party and government.However, due to the social situation between 1949-1957, the unemployed instead of housewives got the focus of Party and government. In 1958, in order to accelerate the process of socialist industrialization and realize the dream of making China strong as soon as possible, Party and government made a new series of attempts,as a result of which the policy concering with urban women taking up career changed. A large number of houwives were allowed to work outdoor, wherther in neighborhood streets, or to the factories. During the five years, shanghai local party and government changed the policy serval times in accordance with the local community as well as the superior command and gave different class women different career qualifications. When Party and government adjusted policies, neighborhood cadres and production organizations were engaging women to work in different space. In the neighborhood, cadres took responsibilities to mobilize women to work, arranging them in the street collective enterprises, and transporting them to factories. In practice,they had complex performance, eithor obeyed or disobeyed policies. So as the production organizations. They played " polyphonic " and " out of tune " of leap theme.Factories and enterprises absorbed housewives as the cheap labor resources outside the planned economy. Housewives were both the object and the participants, having diverse response, or cooperative, or resist, which clearly showed their autonomy. In the five years and later on, mostof them experienced out of the house-return home- out of the house again.To analysis the course that shanghai housewives took up occupation during the five years, it can be considered as an example of grassroots autonomy. The first peak which urban women took up an occupation in contemporary China brought different participants different effect, but no doubt it left the city rich historical heritage.