Cai Chang (; 14 May 1900 – 11 September 1990) was a Chinese politician and women's rights activist who was the first chair of the All-China Women's Federation, a Chinese women's rights organization.

Early life

Cai Chang was born in 1900 to a lower middle class family in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Her mother left her husband, and enabled her children to attend school by selling her belongings. Cai believed strongly in women's education, and spurned the idea of marriage in favor of a vow of

celibacy Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the ...

. Her mother aided her in this by avoiding an

arranged marriage Arranged marriage is a type of marital union where the bride and groom are primarily selected by individuals other than the couple themselves, particularly by family members such as the parents. In some cultures a professional matchmaker may be us ...

for Cai. Cai attended the Zhounan Girls' Middle School at Changsha until 1916. In the winter of 1917–1918, she became one of the first women to join the New People's Study Society, a work study program put in place by Mao Zedong and Cai's brother, Cai Hesen. This group advocated for women to create their own self-help groups and to become active in politics. Cai, her mother, Cai Hesen, and Cai Hesen's future wife Xiang Jingyu went to Europe, where Cai was a factory worker. She studied

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...

, Marxism, and

Leninism Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vanguardis ...

alongside other Chinese socialist feminist scholars, including at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow. In 1922, Cai married Li Fuchun, a prominent communist.

Career

In 1921, Cai returned to China, where she studied to become a physical education teacher. She taught for four years at the Zhounan Girls' School, which she had attended several years earlier. During this time, she joined the Communist Party of China. Cai left her teaching job to work for the Central Women's Department in the Nationalist Party in 1925. Two years later, she joined the Central Women's Committee, leading it in Xiang Jingyu's absence. She helped to create the Marriage Decree of 1930, which declared that "free choice must be the basic principle of every marriage." She also helped write the Provisional Constitution of 1931. From 1934 to 1935, she joined her husband Li Fuchun on the Long March. Cai was well known in China after 1949, where she led the All-China Women's Federation under the People's Republic of China. Part of her work in the ACWF included creating a strategy to help privileged women take a leading role in scientific and cultural improvements. This earned her criticism, however, as it supported the Communist Party of China's views that emphasized technological and economic improvement over women's liberation and advantaged only powerful women; it did not help lower-class women, but rather returned them to their pre-war roles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cai, Chang 1900 births 1990 deaths 20th-century Chinese women politicians All-China Women's Federation people Burials at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery Chinese Communist Party politicians from Hunan Chinese women's rights activists Delegates to the 5th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party Educators from Hunan People's Republic of China politicians from Hunan Politicians from Xiangtan Republic of China politicians from Hunan Vice Chairpersons of the National People's Congress

Early life

Career

See also

References