This post has received quite a lot of traction (thank you to everyone who commented/reblogged/liked/followed!), as well as some criticism about the origin of the quote. So below is a short excerpt from “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” the nonfiction book that I used to make the post.
“The battle for women’s rights in China was as bitter as it is today in the Middle East, and there were setbacks. Chinese social conservatives were furious when young women began to cut their hair, saying that this made women look like men. In the late 1920s, street thugs would sometimes seize a woman with short hair and pull out all of her hair or even cut off her breasts. If you want to look like a man, they said, this will do it.
“Communism after the 1949 revolution was brutal in China, leading to tens of millions of deaths by famine or repression, but its single most positive legacy was the emancipation of women. After taking power, Mao brought women into the workforce and the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and he used his political capital to abolish child marriage, prostitution, and concubinage. It was Mao who proclaimed: ‘Women hold up half the sky.’
“There were some setbacks for women with the death of ideology and the rise of a market economy in the 1980s, and Chinese women still face challenges. Even college-educated women experience discrimination in finding jobs, and sexual harassment is widespread.”
Hopefully this helps lend some context to the words themselves, not as a defense of Mao, but as an excerpt from a book on a larger topic. As for why the authors called the quote a proverb, they’d be the only ones who could answer that, but I will offer this definition: a proverb is a short pithy saying in general use, stating a general truth or piece of advice.
The book ends with this (spoiler alert):
“Join forces with some friends or form a giving club to multiply the impact. Now let’s get on with it, and speed up the day when women truly hold up half the sky.”
Quotes From Our Shared Shelf is a collection of excerpts that I choose from books I read in Our Shared Shelf, Emma Watson’s feminist book club on Goodreads. I encourage everyone to read the books in their entirety. Happy reading!
