On the Organization and Work of the
Committee for Upholding Women'S Rights
and Improving Women's lives
Announcement by the Interim Central Government
Directive No. 6 of the Council of Peoples Commissars
(June 20, 1932)
Women make up half of the working masses. For working women to participate
actively in the work of the revolution has a tremendous effect on the revolution.
If women join guerrilla forces, the volunteer army, the Red Guards, and the
Young Pioneers, this will demonstrate women's revolutionary initiatives for all
types of struggle. If we do not pay attention to women's problems and fail to
protect the rights to which women are entitled, it may weaken women's enthusiasm for participating in the revolutionary struggle, and this will be a loss for the
revolution. Especially in a revolutionary war which is increasingly expanding
outward, most working men tend to join the Red Army and participate in the
efforts at the front; this requires even more that women take over the work and
the responsibilities of consolidation and security in the rear. If we resolutely
apply the laws protecting and liberating women, lead and encourage working
women to take an active part in the revolutionary war, and also link up closely
and cooperate well with the women's movement, this will speed the victory of
the revolution.
Soviet governments at all levels should recognize women's effective role in
the revolutionary war; in the past, soviet governments seldom paid any attention
to women's rights, and even displayed a tendency to slight women, which may
be gleaned from the following facts:
I. During the last election, some places deprived working women of the right
to vote, thereby preventing working women from participating in the work of the
soviets. This constitutes a violation of the election principles of the soviets and a
violation of working women's constitutional rights. What a grave error this is!
2. Under soviet governments, peasant women receive redistributed land just
MA.O'S ROAD TO POWER
as men do, so they can achieve economic independence. However, in many
places, when women have divorced their husbands, women do not get to take the
land and houses with them, while government officials, instead of paying attention to these problems, fail to protect the rights women should enjoy, and even
interfere with women's right to own property. For example, they prohibit divorced women from taking away clothes. In particular, there is inequality in pay
between male and female workers. For instance, female workers in cooperatives
in Xingguo are paid even less than apprentices. In Nanyang district in Fujian,
men and women do the same type of work in rice processing, but women's
wages are 50 percent lower than men's. This constitutes a most intolerable error
of discriminating against proletarian women!
3. On the issue of marriage, the regulations in the Marriage Law have not
been followed, and there are many cases of buying and selling in marriage,
forced marriages, and child brides. Even physical and verbal abuse of women is
still common everywhere. It is even the case that many governments resort to
oppressive and interventionist measures on the issue of marriage, to the point
that in places like Xingguo, Longsha, and Shangshe, women cannot gain marital
freedom and are even imprisoned and tortured by the local government and are
totally unable to fight back. There have been cases of poisoning husbands to
death in order to gain marital freedom, a measure to which women used to resort
in the past during the feudal period. This not only is a disgrace under soviet
governments, but also proves that these governments resist the laws of the Central Government and continue the old feudal practice of oppressing women!
4. The labor laws contain specific provisions for protecting the rights of
women, but they are not enforced, especially those provisions protecting women
before and after childbirth.
S. Governments at all levels have hitherto been unable to lead the masses
actively in carrying out resolutely and thoroughly the provisions for giving preferential treatment to Red Army families. In particular, there has been no proposal
that women who have joined the Red Army (the volunteer army, for example)
should enjoy the same sort of preferential treatment as do men who have joined
the Red Army. This shows a negligent attitude toward women's interests.
6. In the past, women's average political and cultural levels were slightly
lower than those of men. The soviet governments' protection of women, in some
cases, focuses exclusively on the solution of marriage problems. In most cases,
the soviet governments solve such problems from an oppressive and scornful
perspective or simply ignore them altogether. And most governments go slow or
even abandon political and cultural work directed at women.
In light of the situation described above, we should thoroughly correct the
previous mistakes and shortcomings in our work to protect women. Governments
at all levels should follow this order to establish committees for improving the
living conditions of women at every level and carry out the following types of
efforts:

1. As for organizational relations and style of work, the Committee for Improving the Lives of Women is a specialized committee among the organizations
of government dealing with improving the lives of women. It is different from
{committees on] land, labor, culture, and so on. It is not an administrative part of
government. All of its plans and proposals must be reported to the presidium of
the government at the same level for discussion and approval. After a decision is
made, it is to be applied by the government at that level in the form of an
administrative order. But the Committee for Improving the Lives of Women
cannot, on its own initiative, order governments at subordinate levels to carry out
such decisions; it can only provide working instructions for superior and subordinate committees. In order to guide and supervise the work of the committee. the
presidiums at each level of government should often send representatives to
attend the committee's meetings. For example, when a presidium discusses issues related to women, the chairman of the committee may be invited to attend
the meeting. Or when the committee has made plans and suggestions for improving women's lives, the committee may request permission from the presidium to
attend the meeting and make reports and explanations. For another example,
when different departments of the government discuss women's issues, the committee may also send representatives to attend the meetings of these departments,
participate in the discussions, and express their views.
2. In accordance with the organizational principles promulgated by the Central Government, the tasks and work of the Committee for Improving the Lives
of Women consist of investigating and surveying the conditions of women's
lives, studying and designing means of improving the lives of women, inspecting
lower-level governments' execution of all laws and regulations relating to
women, and reporting and making specific proposals to governments at the same
level.
3. As for the relationship between the Committee for Improving the Lives of
Women and the Congress of Working Women. the committee may call meetings
of the Congress of Working Women and, at these meetings of women's deputies,
learn about their family situations, their needs, and their views on the government; it receives the opinions and demands with respect to women's own interests and gathers materials about women. In addition, it may collect materials
about women through the various types of mass organizations.
The Committee for Improving the Lives of Women may, when necessary, ask
mass organizations to send representatives to attend its meetings. The committee
should attend the Congress of Women Workers to report on laws protecting
women issued by the Soviet Government and on the rights women should enjoy.
4. Men and women are absolutely equal under the Soviet Government. Not
only do working women have, politically, the right to vote and be elected, but
they should be recruited to participate in all the work of the government and its
agencies, so that the majority of women may be united around the Soviet Government and actively seek respect for all of their rights. At the moment, the

priority is to correct the erroneous tendency on the part of government officials
at all levels to look down upon women and to neglect the protection of women's
rights, and to wage a resolute struggle against resistance to the application of the
laws related to women. {This means], for example, electing women to the position of township deputies, selecting women cadres to participate in all kinds of
committees formed by the township government (dealing with the work of departments such as land redistribution and land investigation), and paying special
attention to the education and training [of women] on the job.
5. Raise the consciousness of working women and their understanding of the
Soviet Government and revolution. The liberation of working women and the
victory of the entire class are inseparable. Women can gain real liberation only with
class victory. Therefore, women should be helped to understand that, in order to
struggle for their own interests and protect their vested interests, they should struggle
for the Soviet Government. Call on them to support the Red Army; to encourage
their husbands, brothers, and sons to join the Red Army; and to oppose desertion,
organize laundry teams and rescue teams, perform sentry and inspection duties, join
local anned forces, and actively study and participate in the work of the Soviet
Government and mass groups. Thus, [they] will fight for the consolidation of the
Soviet Government, for the development of the revolutionary war, and for the
victory of the revolution first in Jiangxi and the neighboring provinces.
6. In order to raise the political and cultural levels of women, cultural departments at all levels should set up half-day schools for women, organize reading
classes for women, and run temporary training classes in families and field
mobile literacy classes. Teachers may be chosen from government and mass
organization officials and school teachers. Lower-level Committees for Improving the Lives of Women and the cultural departments at equivalent levels should
be urged to undertake cultural efforts related to women, as well as plan to train
women cadres and recruit women to work in all government agencies. In the
Congress of Working Women or women's schools and clubs, political education
should be carried out to call on women to participate actively in the soviet
movement and the revolutionary war.
7. The Committee for Improving the Lives of Women at each level should
discuss, with the labor department at the same level, how to put into effect, in the
immediate future, all the laws and regulations in the labor laws that protect the
interests of women workers. In particular, the same protection given to men
workers should be provided for women before and after childbirth--by providing them with social security benefits. Men and women should receive equal pay
for equal work.
8. Working women who have resolutely and courageously joined the Red
Army should enjoy all rights included in the rules and regulations for preferential
treatment of Red Army personnel.
9. Governments at all levels should uncompromisingly enforce all articles of
the Marriage Law, In particular, it must be ensured that when women divorce

they have the right to dispose of their land and houses. Mercenary marriages,
forced marriages, child brides, physical and verbal abuse of women, and all
similar oppressive practices toward women must be strictly prohibited. If government officials at any level again commit the mistakes of repressing women
and abandoning the protection of women's rights, they should be penalized
without mercy. The Committees for Improving the Lives of Women at every
level should pay even greater attention to mobilizing women to fight for the
support and implementation of soviet laws for the protection of women; in the
course of improving the lives of women, the committees should further
strengthen women's initiatives for struggle and their active participation in all
the struggles of the soviets.
10. In order to improve the lives of women, it is extremely important for
governments at all levels to establish the organization and operation of the Committee for Improving the Lives of Women.
a. Governments at all levels should form Committees for Improving the
Lives of Women as soon as possible and supervise the work of the committees at each level. They should also determine specific work plans. The
Central Council of People's Commissars previously ordered governments at
all levels to establish such committees before May. But this order has not yet
been carried out; the superior government's order has been neglected. It is
hereby again mandated that governments at all levels completely establish
Committees for Improving the Lives of Women before July 15.
b. The two survey forms distributed in Fujian and Jiangx.i provinces by
the Central Committee for Improving the Lives of Women should be filled
out, tallied, and returned to the Central Committee before July 15.
c. Committees for Improving the Lives of Women must present monthly
working reports to the next higher level of government on the lives of women, as
well as suggestions and specific solutions on the lives of women.
d. The provincial soviets of Jiangxi and Fujian provinces have already
formed Committees for Improving the Lives of Women. They should immediately decide on specific and practical working plans for a given time
period; they should immediately urge lower-level governments to form Committees for Improving the Lives of Women. They should pay special attention
to the supervision and direction of major xian and to carrying out the work
there. They should make a working report to the Central Government before
July 15. It is so ordered.
Chairman
Mao Zedong
Vice-Chairmen
Xiang Ying
Zhang Guotao
--- Notes

This document was first published in Hongse Zhonghua, no. 26, July 7, 1932. We have
translated it from Mao Zedongji. Bujuan, Vol. 4, pp. 49-54, where it is reproduced from
that source.