In accordance with the proposal of the Women’s Work Conference convened by the Central Committee in September 1948, the following decisions are hereby made concerning current rural women’s work in the Liberated Areas:

I
The Chinese people persisted in eight years of the War of Resistance Against Japan and defeated Japanese imperialism; now they have waged the People’s War of Liberation for two and a half years, achieving unprecedented and tremendous victories, and in about one more year it will be possible fundamentally to overthrow the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang. The attainment of such victories relies on the correct leadership of the Party, the heroic fighting skill of the People’s Liberation Army, and the arduous struggles of the broad masses of the people, and women, who constitute half the population, have also played a very great role, becoming an indispensable force in defeating the enemy and building a new China. Women’s work has achieved results. Especially since the Central Committee issued the “Decision on the Current Guiding Principles for Women’s Work in the Various Anti-Japanese Base Areas” in February 1943, women’s work in the Liberated Areas has received clear guiding principles. In places where these principles have been implemented, women’s work has undergone a marked transformation, further mobilizing and organizing the broad masses of rural women in the Liberated Areas to participate in handicrafts, side-occupations, and agricultural production, thereby vigorously supporting the war. In the land reform movement, the various Liberated Areas mobilized even broader masses of women to take an active part in the struggle to distribute land equally and eliminate feudalism. In areas where land reform has been completed, fundamental changes have taken place in rural class relations; men and women, old and young, have each received an equal share of land. Quite a few women have become district or village representatives, and have even been elected village heads, deputy village heads, or cadres above the village level. The level of consciousness and activism of women has been greatly raised a step further. Their status in politics, the economy, the family, and society has consequently undergone a fundamental change, opening up the path to the complete liberation of women.

However, certain shortcomings also exist in women’s work in the Liberated Areas. In some areas, Party organizations and women’s groups have insufficiently understood the decision issued by the Central Committee in February 1943 and have not comprehensively grasped that organizing women to take an active part in production is the central task of women’s work and also the central key to protecting women’s special interests and striving for women’s liberation from the shackles of feudal remnants. In some places, this decision has even been completely ignored, and thus it has not been earnestly implemented and carried out. Secondly, in some places, in the process of mobilizing women to participate in production, land reform, and work supporting the front, there has been a failure consciously to pay attention to removing some persisting feudal shackles on women so as to satisfy women’s special interests and demands, under the assumption that once women are mobilized to participate in production and land reform, everything will naturally be resolved in consequence; or else general work and women’s work have been mechanically separated, so that certain special sufferings of the women masses have not been promptly relieved, hindering the full mobilization of the women masses. In some areas, there still existed certain erroneous tendencies of carrying out women’s liberation work in an isolated and conspicuous manner, creating antagonism between male and female peasants and between young and old women, thereby alienating the masses. The latter tendency has been largely rectified since 1943, remaining not yet completely overcome only in a few areas and now also in the process of rectification, whereas the former tendency is still a relatively common phenomenon in various places up to the present. The main reason for these shortcomings is that some cadres in Party and women’s organizations in certain areas lack a complete mass-work viewpoint, do not comprehensively recognize the importance of women’s work, do not deeply enough understand that women’s work is a part of the entire revolutionary work, and have failed properly to combine mobilizing women to produce actively with protecting women’s special interests. Furthermore, in some areas, Party organizations and women’s groups have paid insufficient attention to the glorious task of leading the women masses in supporting the war and consolidating the troops. They have either failed to carry out earnestly the work of helping and giving preferential treatment to the families of soldiers, or have failed to conduct appropriate criticism and education regarding the behavior of some backward soldiers’ family members who “pull at the tail” and engage in various other acts hindering the consolidation of the troops. They have not made the women masses understand that without victory in the People’s War of Liberation, there can be no genuine liberation for the women masses, and thus they have been unable fully to inspire the women masses’ enthusiasm for supporting the war. Because work has not been inspected in a timely manner, experience has not been summed up, and deviations have not been corrected, the above-mentioned shortcomings have not been promptly overcome.

II
The current guiding principle for rural women’s work in the Liberated Areas should still regard mobilizing and organizing the broad masses of women to take an active part in production as the basic link of women’s work. The basic guiding principle for women’s work set forth in the Central Committee’s decision of February 1943 remains entirely applicable. It is necessary to make the whole Party, all cadres doing women’s work, and the activists among the women masses understand that under the New Democratic regime, all the old society’s laws that bound and mistreated women and placed women in a subordinate or humiliating position no longer exist; new laws guaranteeing complete equality between men and women in economic, political, and social status were enacted, or basically enacted, in the earliest period of the establishment of the New Democratic regime. The question is how to ensure that these laws can be thoroughly implemented. Because of the concept of valuing men and slighting women handed down from the old society, the shackles of various feudal customs, and especially the weakness handed down from the old society that women must rely on men economically, are not adept at engaging in various kinds of labor, and even despise labor, women are hindered from swiftly realizing the rights already stipulated by law. Therefore, to carry out and realize women’s rights, necessary work must still be undertaken. First of all, it is necessary not only that women, like men, obtain equal economic rights and status and obtain and retain an equal share of land and property in the countryside, but especially that women fully recognize the importance of labor, regard labor as an honorable undertaking, and actively participate in all kinds of labor and production work that they are physically capable of performing, becoming creators of wealth in the family and society. Only when women actively rise to labor and gradually achieve economic independence without relying on others will they be respected by parents-in-law, husbands, and society, will family harmony and unity increase, will it become easier to raise and consolidate women’s status in society and politics, and will there be a solid foundation for the full realization of all laws on equality between men and women. The experience of the past few years has also fully proved this point. That is to say, wherever women have actively participated in labor and production, regarded labor as honorable, carried out education on equality between men and women, opposed feudal shackles, and also received a share of land, women’s status has appeared entirely different from the past. Their mood is very happy, they are respected by people, and many activists have been elected as representatives or have taken part in other social and political activities. Moreover, it must be recognized that women’s participation in labor is not only the basic key to women’s liberation; whether for supporting the war today, for the economic construction of New Democracy, or for the future victory of socialism, women’s labor is extremely necessary and indispensable. Therefore, in the rural areas of the Liberated Areas, we must use every effort to continue to mobilize and organize the broad masses of women to participate in agriculture, handicrafts, and side-occupation production. As for the specific principles and requirements for restoring and developing various kinds of production, and which kind of production—agriculture, handicrafts, or side-occupations—women in each locality should mainly participate in, concrete plans should be formulated according to the unified production plans of the local Party and government, the situation of male and female labor power, and women’s original production habits, suited to the time and place. In order to stabilize and raise women’s enthusiasm for participating in production, in concluding land reform work, all localities must, in accordance with the local Party’s policy of rectifying policies and handling leftover problems from land reform, resolve various problems concerning women. The government shall explicitly decree the protection of women’s land rights. When issuing land certificates on a household basis, it must be noted on the land certificate that men and women have equal land rights, and that all family members have the right to democratic disposal of property; when necessary, separate land certificates may also be issued to women. At the same time, long-term propaganda and explanation work should be carried out among all peasants so that male and female peasants can comprehensively recognize the importance of safeguarding women’s land rights.

In order to enable the healthy development of rural women’s production, the policy of “getting organized” must be correctly implemented, and the women masses must be vigorously mobilized to participate in various cooperatives—such as agricultural mutual-aid teams, textile groups, and other types of production cooperatives, as well as supply and marketing cooperatives. In agricultural production, it is appropriate for women to participate in household-to-household cooperation and small mutual-aid teams in which both men and women may take part. In handicrafts and side-occupations, it is appropriate for women to participate in various supply and marketing cooperatives. In terms of methods, the principles of voluntariness and mutual benefit must be practiced, democratic spirit must be brought into play, the masses’ creativity must be encouraged, and excessive interference, coercion and commandism, and formalism must be strictly avoided; at the same time, drift must not be permitted. With production as the center, and in the course of production, educational work for women must be strengthened, women’s political consciousness and cultural level must be raised, women must be mobilized to participate in democratic political construction, maternal and infant health must be promoted (such as organizing training classes for maternal and infant health cadres, organizing Chinese and Western medicine cooperatives, etc.), and women’s special interests must be protected. Feudal ideas and traditional customs that hinder women from participating in political, economic, and cultural activities—first and foremost participation in production—must be consciously and step by step eliminated. It should not be assumed that so long as women participate in production, the feudal shackles on women persisting in society will naturally disappear and no further work need be done; such a drift viewpoint, which pays no attention to women’s special interests, is also erroneous. In the course of production, through various mass organizations and meetings, ideological education on equality between men and women should be regularly carried out among all peasants, feudal ideas and traditional customs should be criticized, and it should be pointed out that all feudal customs that bind women must be abolished. As for the small number of backward elements who wish to maintain old feudal customs and constantly bully and oppress women, appropriate struggle must be conducted when necessary. However, it must be understood that this kind of struggle is an ideological struggle within the peasantry and must be strictly distinguished from the class struggle against feudal landlords. Moreover, the purpose of this kind of struggle is to educate all peasants more effectively, to be more conducive to mobilizing women to participate in production and other construction undertakings, to establish truly democratic and harmonious families, and to further consolidate and strengthen unity within the peasantry. At the same time, it must also be recognized that this is work to transform peasant thinking, a process requiring long-term effort, and must not be rushed. We should oppose drift, and at the same time we should also oppose impetuosity. Foot-binding, female infanticide, mercenary marriage, child brides, and the like should be prohibited by government decree, while at the same time the masses should be educated to strive for thorough implementation. In the Liberated Areas, in some areas the marriage laws of the past contained certain provisions that violated the principles of equality between men and women and freedom of marriage and should be promptly revised.

In the newly liberated areas, the guiding principle for rural women’s work should be, in accordance with the Central Committee’s instructions for work in the new areas, to propagate the Party’s policies (including policies on women’s work), expand the Party’s influence, expose all the enemy’s rumor-mongering, slander, and arbitrary propaganda, stabilize social order, and in areas where reduction of rent and interest or implementation of land reform is carried out, mobilize the broad masses of women to take an active part, and lead and organize women to participate in production and construction and to support the war. In those new areas, after the implementation of rent and interest reduction or the distribution of land, labor and production are likewise the central link of women’s work. As for the feudal traditional customs that bind women, they are inevitably very serious in the new areas; therefore, education on equality between men and women must be carried out among the broad masses, the masses’ consciousness must be awakened, and according to the degree of their consciousness, these customs must be consciously and step by step gradually eliminated.

III
Regarding the question of the organizational form of the women masses, in some areas in the past, separate organizations of the women masses were abolished, or existed in name only, which is inappropriate. According to the current concrete circumstances of Chinese women, separate women’s mass organizations are still necessary in order to lead and promote women’s work, unite and educate the broad masses of women, and constantly serve women. The women’s representative conference is the best organizational form for linking with the women masses more broadly and more democratically, and such organizations should exist at all levels in all localities. The village-level women’s representative conference is the basic organization of this kind of representative conference. Its representatives should be democratically elected by the women masses and must include female representatives of the people’s representative assembly, female representatives of women’s groups (such as representatives of textile groups, cooperatives, literacy classes, etc.), and representatives directly elected by the broad masses of women (who may be elected by a certain number of women according to residential conditions). The function of this kind of representative conference is to represent the opinions of the women masses, discuss the guiding principles, tasks, and important work of local women’s work, transmit the policies, laws, or resolutions of the democratic government and higher-level organizations, and mobilize the broad masses of women to carry them out together. At the same time, a committee should be elected by the representative conference to implement resolutions, take charge of day-to-day work, and convene the representative conference at regular intervals. The name of this committee may be determined according to the opinions of the masses. In places where the masses are already familiar with the Women’s Federation, it may be called the committee of the Women’s Federation. Furthermore, in order to enrich the organized mass foundation, the committee of the women’s representative conference should employ various and diverse organizational forms, such as literacy classes, cooperatives, mutual-aid teams, etc., to organize women masses with different demands; at the same time, it must also constantly maintain contact with the broad unorganized women masses and serve them. At the county level and above, women’s representative conferences should also be convened according to the above principles, and committees of the Women’s Federation should be elected to lead women’s work. In the past, in a few areas, the Women’s Federation did not proceed from the actual circumstances of the masses; organizationally, it formalistically emphasized recruiting members, held too many small-group meetings, failed to convene representative conferences for long periods, and in its work practiced coercion and commandism, formalistically fulfilling so-called tasks from higher levels rather than serving the masses; as a result, the Women’s Federation essentially became alienated from the masses and turned into an organ monopolized by a few people. Such undesirable phenomena should be vigorously corrected in the future.

In newly liberated rural areas, after the situation has been initially stabilized, women’s organizations may be established. However, preparatory work must be carried out step by step and in a planned manner beforehand, and women’s organizations should be gradually established according to the needs and level of consciousness of the masses, so as to unite and educate the broad masses of women. Such women’s groups must take laboring women as their foundation.

IV
In accordance with the needs of the current development of the revolutionary situation, it is necessary boldly to train, boldly employ, and promote large numbers of Party and non-Party women cadres to various work posts, and to strengthen the cadres of women’s organizations at all levels. Male and female cadres of equal ability should be assigned equal work and given equal opportunities for training and education, without discrimination; and in light of the special circumstances of women cadres, even greater attention should be paid to raising their political, theoretical, and cultural level and work ability, helping them resolve special difficulties, and setting up nurseries, childcare centers, or organizing mutual-aid childcare among women cadres, so as to alleviate the difficulties of women cadres and also serve as a starting point for developing childcare undertakings in society. As for newly emerging laboring women cadres in the countryside, special efforts should be made to strengthen education at their original work posts, patiently train them, gradually promote them, and attention should be paid to recruiting women Party members. In new areas, special attention should be paid to training local women cadres. Party schools at all levels and training classes run by the government should systematically admit women cadres for study, and the Organization Department and Propaganda Department of Party committees at all levels should include the training and education of women cadres within their scope of work. Women cadres themselves, under the leadership and education of the Party, should consciously work actively, master their professional work, strengthen unity, raise work efficiency, diligently study theory, policy, cultural knowledge, and the knowledge and skills of production work; carry out criticism and self-criticism, overcome the weaknesses of women, strive for progress, and strengthen the idea of serving the people. This is the basic condition for improving themselves into outstanding cadres of the Party.

V
Since the National Land Conference in 1947, Party committees at all levels have generally paid greater attention to the leadership of women’s work than before, and some improvements have been made, but regular and planned implementation of leadership over women’s work has not yet been achieved. Women’s work displays a passive phenomenon of being tight at the top and tight at the bottom, loose at the top and loose at the bottom. There are still a few Party committees that have not overcome the phenomenon of neglecting women’s work and letting it drift. From now on, the whole Party must comprehensively recognize that mobilizing the broad masses of women to participate in the revolutionary struggle is an indispensable force for winning nationwide revolutionary victory; leadership over women’s work must be further strengthened, and the principle of the whole Party doing women’s work must be implemented. Party committees at all levels should list women’s work as a part of the Party’s overall work, and when arranging, inspecting, and summing up various kinds of work, women’s work should be included. Party newspapers and news agencies at all levels should strengthen propaganda and reporting on women’s work. Party committees at the county level and above should establish and perfect women’s committee organizations and regularly provide guidance and assistance. Below the district level, women’s work should be led through the Party branch, and specific persons should be designated to take responsibility. The duty of women’s committees at all levels is, under the leadership of the Party committee at the same level, to study women’s problems and women’s policies, inspect women’s work, and make proposals to the Party committee, so as to guide and promote women’s work. The Party should further correct the feudal thinking of valuing men and slighting women that persists inside and outside the Party, the liquidationist thinking that excludes women’s work from overall work, and the deviation of carrying out women’s work in an isolated and conspicuous manner. Party organizations at all levels should strengthen the study and application of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought to guide women’s work, cultivate a complete mass viewpoint, correctly grasp the policy on the women’s movement, and overcome the phenomena of indiscipline and anarchism in women’s work. Women’s workers should all the more seek truth from facts, go deep among the masses, work with埋头苦干 (bury themselves in hard work), serve the women masses wholeheartedly, and push the women’s movement a step further forward.

VI
In order to meet the needs of the development of the nationwide revolution and concentrate the fighting strength of women, women’s groups in the Liberated Areas should strive to unite with all women throughout the country who oppose U.S. imperialism, oppose feudalism, and oppose bureaucratic capitalism, and together struggle to drive U.S. imperialism out of China, overthrow the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang, and establish a unified New Democratic people’s republic. For this purpose, it is hereby decided that women’s groups in the Liberated Areas shall initiate the convening of a National Women’s Congress in the spring of 1949, to establish the National Democratic Women’s Federation, so that the national women’s movement can, under unified guiding principles, develop forward on a larger scale and more powerfully.