"Enable every woman who can work to take her place on the labour front, under the principle of equal pay for equal work"
About this Quote
A war metaphor disguised as liberation, Mao's line drafts women into the revolution as both workers and symbols. "Enable" sounds benevolent, but it positions the state as gatekeeper: participation is granted, organized, and ultimately directed. The phrase "take her place" is doing heavy ideological work. It implies an already-mapped formation, a slot in a collective project where individuality matters less than deployment. This is emancipation framed as mobilization.
"Labour front" carries the unmistakable cadence of a command economy and a permanent campaign mentality. Work becomes not just livelihood but battlefield, with productivity as patriotism. The intent is clear: expand the workforce, legitimate women's employment as revolutionary duty, and claim modernity against "feudal" gender roles. It's a recruitment pitch that borrows the moral authority of equality to solve a practical problem of production and legitimacy.
The promise of "equal pay for equal work" functions like a revolutionary seal of approval. It signals a break with older hierarchies and offers a measurable, modern-sounding standard. The subtext is thornier: equality is defined within the state's categories of "work", and unpaid domestic labor remains conveniently off the books. Even in systems that loudly championed women's labor, double burdens and occupational sorting often persisted, because ideology can mandate participation faster than it can redistribute power at home or in institutions.
Context matters: Maoist China pushed mass mobilization, collectivization, and a remaking of social life where gender equality was both genuine aspiration and political instrument. The line works because it fuses moral progress with national necessity, making dissent feel like betrayal of both justice and revolution.
"Labour front" carries the unmistakable cadence of a command economy and a permanent campaign mentality. Work becomes not just livelihood but battlefield, with productivity as patriotism. The intent is clear: expand the workforce, legitimate women's employment as revolutionary duty, and claim modernity against "feudal" gender roles. It's a recruitment pitch that borrows the moral authority of equality to solve a practical problem of production and legitimacy.
The promise of "equal pay for equal work" functions like a revolutionary seal of approval. It signals a break with older hierarchies and offers a measurable, modern-sounding standard. The subtext is thornier: equality is defined within the state's categories of "work", and unpaid domestic labor remains conveniently off the books. Even in systems that loudly championed women's labor, double burdens and occupational sorting often persisted, because ideology can mandate participation faster than it can redistribute power at home or in institutions.
Context matters: Maoist China pushed mass mobilization, collectivization, and a remaking of social life where gender equality was both genuine aspiration and political instrument. The line works because it fuses moral progress with national necessity, making dissent feel like betrayal of both justice and revolution.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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