The Great Leap Backward: A Feminist Analysis of Chinese Famine Politics from 1958-1961

Abstract

This paper revisits the causes and impacts of the deadliest famine in human history––the Great Chinese Famine––through a feminist lens. Mao Zedong and a male-dominated Communist Party led China into famine after its failed Great Leap Forward industrialization campaign in 1956. During the famine, Chairman Mao’s feminist slogans and state programs to promote gender equality were ineffective at best, and counterproductive at worst. We built the foundation of our analysis on primary sources, including oral histories from a broad demographic of civilians and cadres living throughout mainland China. We also incorporated archival research of reports, speeches, and writings of Communist leaders. To bolster our understanding of gendered experiences during the Great Famine, we interviewed both surviving civilians and Communist party members. During the famine, we found that women bore new double burdens, had their political interests marginalized, and witnessed their labor systematically devalued. In retrospect, China's patriarchal government, built off Chairman Mao's cult of personality, gained unchecked power over women during the famine and abused it.