Power, women and revolution: The role of the All-China Women's Federation in China's revolution

The All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) is a women's organization with millions of employees. It is said to be the largest women's organization in the world because it has been declared by the Chinese government as the only legal representative for all Chinese women. However, since its founding both the ACWF and its staff have been marginalized in China. This thesis applies recent theories of power to the field of gender. It also collects first-hand data through direct interviews with its research subjects. Most ideas and concepts previously developed about the ACWF in China positively assess its usefulness to Chinese women. My research has come up with an opposite conclusion. Through a discussion of the ACWF's role in modern China, I conclude that if the existence of the organization is not totally unnecessary, it nevertheless has played a limited role in protecting the best interests of Chinese women. Indeed it has had a negative impact on the lives of Chinese women. First, the ACWF emerged as an auxiliary to the CCP instead of as an independent women's organization. As such, it has helped the CCP work on organizing the whole of China under one party's leadership. Second, due to its lack of financial autonomy, handicapped organizational structure, and lack of rights to independently recruit its own personnel, the ACWF, even in the issue of women's affairs, is manipulated by the male dominated CCP power. Since the CCP has intervened in ACWF affairs from the very beginning, the ACWF's autonomy is limited to what the male dominated party permits. Third, since gender issues have been criticized as a bourgeois ideology in CCP China, most often women's interests are never thoroughly addressed since both the ACWF and the CCP are blind to their own gender prejudices.