Following the 1980s, a mixture of factors including China's increasing international presence, improved academic and employment opportunities for women, and a more open political climate led to strengthened efforts to address domestic violence and, in particular, violence against women. A large factor for this change was China's involvement in various United Nations conferences geared towards women and family issues in the 1990s. The World Conference on Women hosted in China in 1995, in particular, allowed Chinese activists to come in contact with numerous international women's organizations and openly discuss the issue of domestic violence. During this period, grassroots women's organizations such as the Women's Research Institute were being founded, breaking into a field of activism that only the ACWF historically occupied.