As well as all this, they were usually made to do manual work in the fields all day, everyday, even during pregnancy. Because of the lack of money the peasant families earned, many women turned to prostitution. Due to lack of contraception, the women would then get pregnant, have a child and the whole problem would start again, but worse. They were the lowest of the low, and nothing could change that or could it?.
By the late forties, the Communists were in control of most of the countryside. They had two main aims. The first was to improve the lives of the women; rich or poor. For the richer women, the first step they took was to abolish the traditional foot binding. For the poor, they abolished the murder of unwanted baby girls, the sale of women, and prostitution. A Women's Association was set up, for any class of women, so they could get help about abusive husbands or father-in-laws. .
While all this was going on, most of the cities were still under Kuomintang (KMT) rule. The KMT had made no changes to the way in which women lived, but many older, traditional women were happier like this. They didn't want all these young people make them think for themselves, and make decisions about what they wanted.
Finally, in 1949 when the whole of China was bought under Communist rule, several laws were bought in for women. The first, in 1949, was women's rights were to be equal to men. They were to have exactly the same privileges. The second, was the Marriage Law in 1950. Arranged marriages and the marriages of children were all bought to an end. The minimum age for marriage was fixed at eighteen for women, and twenty for men. Men and women now jointly owned the family and its property. The final law was in 1951. This entitled expectant mother to two months maternity leave of full wages after the birth of the child. This was for women of all status.
The main change for the life of women came in 1958 in The Great Leap Forward.
