Women in transition: The struggle for equal rights in revolutionary China, 1900-1957

China rose through revolution from semi-colonial servant to socialist power during the twentieth century. Tremendous social changes swept women into new roles which illustrate the history of changing ideas and perceptions about women. Theirs is the revolution within the Revolution. Even governments whose own origins were established through revolutionary means conveniently forget those origins and adopt an anti-radical stance against members who threaten the established order. China's government is among the guilty who have made women targets of this anti-radicalism. Frustration over unequal educational and employment opportunities and a lack of political power initiated suffrage, equal rights and civil rights movements. This study details the Chinese female experience during revolutionary change and the early evolution of China's Socialist government prior to the Great Leap Forward Movement of 1958. While focusing on Chinese women leaders as examples, their struggles for women's rights are compared and contrasted with the collective experience of larger segments of the female population. The resulting synthesis shows the unique struggle Chinese women faced under extreme conditions of internal political turmoil and war.