Its stated aim was to "enlighten the majority of women so they can achieve their own emancipation through participation in social movements". The inaugural issue included an article arguing women should devote themselves to nationalism and social reform. It opposed the return of women to the home under what it called the "new good-wife and wise-mother-ism" espoused by some Nationalist politicians. When the Ping opera singer Bai Yushuang was expelled by the mayor of Beiping (now Beijing) for the revealing attire and obscene lyrics of her 1933 "Chasing Flies", "Women's Lives" reported icily that "thousands of square miles of Chinese territory have been occupied by the Japanese without any resistance, but if a woman offends public decency, she must be expelled."