Unveiling Gender Discourse in the State Patriarchy—An Investigation of Cultural Strategies in the Women's Magazine in Maoist China.

The question how pro-women elements became possible in the state-sponsored movements despite the prevalence of state patriarchy in Maoist China has been on scholars' radar for a long time. Previous studies answered it through researching the nature of various women's groups in the state. Some argued that women's groups were passive followers of the central political agendas, whereas others contended that women's groups exhibited autonomy in creating anti-patriarchy cultural front. Results are diverse partly because they focused on different women's groups. While findings above greatly advanced our understanding of roles of women's groups in Maoist China, few have examined how women's groups acted strategically in different political upheavals, either in complicity or in defiance of state patriarchy. To fill the gap, this research uses the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF)—a national women's group as an example—and investigates its adopted gender discourse and cultural strategies in different times of Maoist China. Drawing on content analysis of ACWF's publication—the Women of China (1955–1965)—this research finds that the capacity of gender discourse to separate itself from class-centered politics (flexibility) and to challenge patriarchal conventions (strength) varied across historical periods. Along with the variation are different cultural strategies. Results above unveil a more complicated relationship between the women's group (i.e., ACWF) and the state in Maoist time. Meanwhile, while existing theories highlighted the contradictory relationship between class and gender discourse, results of this research suggest that a strong class discourse does not necessarily associate with a weak gender discourse in critiquing patriarchal conventions. Instead, with appropriate cultural strategies, gender discourse could utilize class-related topics to challenge patriarchal norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]