Women Workers Must Participate in
Economic Work(February 24, 1943)1
Female workers must themselves acquire knowledge of the rural economy and
understand the substance of women’s production. Only thus can they truly
become the organizers and leaders of production by the rural masses. Many
capable female comrades must go and work in the cooperatives. Moreover, many
female Party members and female cadres must go and work in the economic
organs of the publicly owned sector and promote the development of the public
sector of the economy. It is entirely wrong to feel honored rather than ashamed
of floating idly at the top levels without work to do.
Notes
This is a paragraph that Mao added to the draft of the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese
Communist Party on the Guiding Principles on the Present Work of Women in All Anti-Japanese Base
Areas,” dated February 26, 1943, and reproduced in Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 7, pp. 113–15. Our source for
this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 3, p. 8, where it is indicated that Mao wrote this passage while revising
the abovementioned decision. It also appears at the end of the decision, as published in Zhongyang dang’an
guan, ed., Zhonggong zhongyang wenjian xuanji (Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang dangxiao chubanshe,
1982), Vol. 14, pp. 24–27. Since Mao was not the author of the decision itself, it is not included here.
1. This is the date that Mao wrote the paragraph, according to Nianpu, Vol. 2, p. 427. In Mao Zedong wenji,
it is dated simply February 1943.