Iron Girls
"Iron Girls" is a term that was popularized in China during the 1950s through the 1970s. It was used to define a new idealized emerging group of working women who were strong and capable of performing highly demanding labor tasks, usually assigned to men. These tasks included repairing high-voltage electric wires, working at farmland, or heavy physical work. Iron Girls were a symbol of shifting gender norms during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, and in the years following the cultural revolution they faced harsh criticism. Iron Girls relied on the false idea that  men and women were inherently equal, but this idea was criticized by feminists for its emphasis on the division of labor. Accounts of Iron Girls are limited aside from state propaganda which was circulated during the Cultural Revolution. Propaganda images emphasized women with strong physical attributes as well as their ability to perform in jobs which had been dominated by men in the earlier years prior to the Cultural Revolution. Firsthand narratives in the form of memoirs which focus on other social issues at the time are some of the only pieces of evidence of the era available to historians , making it difficult to understand the reality of life as an Iron Girl. The relative equal opportunities for women in labor was a deviation from traditional Chinese models where there was a large gendered division of labor.  After the death of Mao Zedong the idea and depictions of Iron Girls would be heavily mocked and the Chinese government would encourage women to take up traditionally female roles. Origins. Creation of the Iron Girl. During the 1950s, urban Chinese women started to join male-dominated fields. This tendency became even more emphasized during the Cultural Revolution, which started incorporating rural women  in men's agricultural work. The Iron Girls propaganda helped advance these efforts. According to the Chinese Communist Party's central committee, the increasing participation of women in heavy industry was a result of answering the state's call. The term “Iron Girls” became popularized around the 1960s, which was a metaphor to represent the young working women in the rural countryside. The first Iron Girl brigade was formed in 1963 in Dazhai in order to address the agricultural losses caused by a flood. They appeared as a model production squad, and were able to shoulder heavy labor with their  “iron shoulders, hence the name. Initially, the brigade did not have the goal to contend with men or challenge traditional gender norms. However, when Mao Zedong used the Dazhai brigade as an example of mobilization techniques, they started to facilitate different agendas. In the wake of Dazhai's Iron Girls brigade propaganda, many new specialized groups started to form in an array of different male-dominated fields (like coal mining, transportation, fishing etc.) Localized labor shortages and feminization of agriculture also contributed to the rise of the Iron Girls. Men were migrating towards non-agricultural sectors, like joining the army  or working in cities. Men had more opportunities, so when they left, women had to replace their work. During the 1960s, agriculture was feminized in many areas, as women were responsible for 87.5% of agricultural work at the time. In urban areas, women's brigades were also on the rise, because of the government's new employment policies: with the sudden employment of a large number of educated females, the government had to assign some of them to physically demanding tasks, rather than just the bureaus. Therefore, they did not have another choice. Yet even in the frontlines, women outnumbered  men, and each brigade was only assigned a few men to boost morale. Then when there weren't enough men, all-women groups were formed and they were assigned tasks that other people did not want to do. However, the single-sex groups started demonstrating high levels of productivity, because they were able to draw from a gender-based identity which was rooted in increasing their confidence and strength. Furthermore, women's brigades became a source of pride for the workers, because their work was attracting attention and respect from the public, which further incentivized them to work enthusiastically. In  addition to their commitment to their work, the women were also applauded for being loyal and following instructions carefully. Therefore, many local administrations were inclined to utilize their services, since they were faithful to commanders, and were increasingly productive after even after minimal incentives. History. Qing Empire. Under the Qing Empire, and to a degree the Republic of China, labor was heavily gendered* which was exacerbated through practices such as footbinding and the civil service exam.  Upper-class women were expected to spend the majority of their time inside the home where they were tasked with managing the household.  Girls  of these households would generally be educated in fields such as weaving and art which were seen as advantageous traits to have when it came time for arranging  marriage.  Boys were expected to spend the majority of their time studying for the civil service exam and were educated by tutors and even their educated mothers.  Men who passed the civil service exam were often away from home as official government work required for men to travel to outside provinces. For lower-class families the gender stratification was not as wide.  Most lower-class men and boys could not afford the  lessons needed to pass the civil service exam and women did not have their feet bound as tightly as privileged women.  In many farming families women would often work alongside their male family members despite having bound feet. Maoist China. Mao Zedong saw labor as the tool of women's liberation. In his writings Mao Zedong saw rural peasant women as less oppressed by men than other women due to their ability to work and attributes many of rural women movements to their ability to work and therefore have a say in family and political issues. Under Mao Zedong's  government, many of the social structures and laws surrounding women and marriage were discarded and replaced with a system that emphasized the similarities between men and women. The 1950 Marriage Law would outlaw many of the previous systems of marriage such as arranged marriage and concubinage.  In addition to this, it made obtaining a divorce easier for both genders and equalized the distribution of property after divorce. The ability of women to perform the same tasks as men was emphasized during the Maoist era and the Iron Girls who took up traditional masculine roles, such as electricians or tractor drivers , were celebrated by Chinese media.  However, the vast majority of Chinese women still did not work in these traditionally masculine fields and continued to work in areas such as textiles, which were historically dominated by women.  Although the rhetoric of the Iron Girl helped women achieve praise and prominence in fields they were typically excluded from, its main goal was not to address women's issues or liberation.  Feminism was considered bourgeois by the Chinese government and the industrialization and development of the state were the primary motivating factors for the state to push for further inclusion of women in  more “masculine” fields. Sent-Down Youth. The sent-down youth were students who were sent from the cities in order to be reeducated by peasants in the villages. They regarded themselves as crusaders for change and equality in the workplace. These adolescent urban-educated sent down girls supported Mao's slogan of equality and idolized the agenda of the Iron Girls. Therefore, their missionary-like attitudes helped further the state propaganda. However, not all sent-down girls were leaders of gender equality within the workforce. Many found this new lifestyle difficult to maintain, and chose to get married in order  to escape the hardships of working in the fields. Account of Xiao Sun, a newly sent-down teen, exemplifies the youth's commitment to Mao's propagandas. As Xiao was sent to the countryside from Chengdu, she was first assigned to be a health worker in a factory but, she wanted a more demanding job. Therefore, she asked to be placed in the mines, but was informed that there was a regulation prohibiting women from working in the mines. Then she replied “but the times have changed. Men and women are the same! Why can’t women comrades do the  same things men comrades can do?”, which granted her the opportunity to work alongside men. In her memoire, "Spider Eaters", the Chinese-American writer Rae Yang describes her experiences in the Great Northern Wilderness as a sent-down female. The memoire includes vivid descriptions of the rising class of Iron Girls as masculine, loud, and strong. Nevertheless, Yang describes her experience as an empowering one, since men and women truly did enjoy full equality under the new system of the Cultural Revolution: women were able to do all the jobs men did, and even better at times. However, there was  still an inherent inequality in the system. Women were assumed to take over a male identity to perform tasks that are usually assigned to men. And the “female designated” tasks like domestic labor were not regarded as highly. When women worked the same amount as men, they still would not be paid equally. Sent-down girls could only earn seven work points a day, while boys could earn nine. However, it is difficult to compare the actual labor divisions of men and women due to a lack of data from the period. The Maoist years were very strict about the  distribution of data, and even if it was accessible, many production units were inflating their data to fulfill government quotas, so they were not as accurate. Therefore, we must rely on personal narratives and testimonials of these workers. The accounts told by the sent-down youth mostly focus on individual experiences and their perceptions of the responsibilities of rural women. Art & Media. Propaganda. The Cultural Revolution, which lasted from 1966 to 1976, included heavy propaganda of women who defied their biological weaknesses and became strong proletarian fighters within the Chinese public. During the Cultural Revolution propaganda of Iron Girls depicted  young women performing manual labor such as driving automobiles, being on drilling and fishing teams, and conducting trains. These images were presented to the public through mediums such as newspapers and magazines. The images presented in the media glorified women's participation as Iron Girls in the workforce. Media emphasized women's roles as paid laborers and the increasing amount of women in the workforce. Some media also highlighted achievements of women in previously female-dominated industries. The way in which Iron Girls were presented in media was primarily to highlight women's participation in the workforce, rather than to  suggest radical shifts in gender dynamics. The main focus of Iron Girls in the media was to inspire more women to join the workforce, and to show women that they could become like men. The focus of the propaganda was not to change society's perspective on gender as a whole. Media often overlooked the important roles women traditionally played in society as wives and mothers, and the important work they performed in the home to keep households running. Media accounts of single women dominated propaganda, which disregarded the work of women in the domestic sphere. Often, propaganda celebrated women  who left traditional domestic roles in favor of work in factories, in the countryside, or in other spaces previously dominated by men. Young women received praise for going against cultural norms and leaving the domestic sphere. Tasks such as raising children and caring after family members were presented as obstacles in the state media. There was very little attention paid to the importance of women looking after children and families and continuously performing tasks in the home. After the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s, the idea of Iron Girls became the subject of satire due to criticism that the idea  of women performing the same work as men went against natural expectations of women. In the Post-Mao era, gender became much more defined as the view of women in the workforce shifted. State propaganda and artwork showed a preference for women who were larger, muscular, or had features similar to that of men. Images presented women performing physically demanding jobs which had previously been dominated by men. The images showcased muscular women lifting heavy objects and groups of women joyously performing tasks. In images where women weren't smiling, they were often featured with stern expressions to emphasize the  seriousness of their tasks. The images also reinforced the Iron Girls idea that women and men could perform the same activities, and they focused primarily on women looking and acting more like men and women having the same physical attributes as men. State propaganda was used to show that women could and should act like men in their work. Literature. First hand accounts of the Iron Girls are extremely limited because most first hand evidence are memoirs that do not focus on labor. These memoirs mostly focus on other struggles faced by women during the 20th century. These sources are  set in a narrative framework rather than analytical. Any accounts that do focus on the intersection of gender and labor are primarily personal testimonies and secondhand sources. Many sources were written by intellectuals which focused primarily on social issues and not labor, but there are some accounts of sent-down youth. Additionally, the primary source of evidence on Iron Girls is state media and propaganda. Accounts present in the media were overwhelmingly positive when pertaining to the life experiences of urban and rural women. These positive accounts focus on the experience of the urban and rural youth, and how their  opportunities to become members of the workforce impacted their lives for good. The collection of data concerning how active women were in the workforce is another aspect that is difficult to get and accurate view of because of instances in which some production units would inflate their labor statistics in order to reach quotas. This means that the numbers of women historians do have a record of could be inaccurate. Also obstructing researchers' ability to gain accurate information is the fact that surveying women for research purposes was not allowed during the Cultural Revolution. These factors contribute to a limited  knowledge of the experience of the Iron Girls and their personal lives. Information missing concerning the Iron Girls is what kind of work men were assigned compared to women, the gendered aspects of the workplace, and how other rural citizens felt about this change in gendered labor. In addition, researchers have tried to understand how the Iron Girls themselves felt about their positions in the workforce and in their society as a whole. This lack of data makes it difficult for researchers and historians to understand what life was like as an Iron Girl, and how other members of the  communities felt about Iron Girls. After the death of Mao, there was a shift in tone in literature from the positive narratives found during the Cultural Revolution. Scar literature of the 1970s and 1980s offered a much more negative glimpse in reflecting on the events of the Cultural Revolution. It reflected on the time period while highlighting the struggle of Chinese citizens and the suffering they endured. Additionally, it was used as a source to reflect on the Cultural Revolution in attempts to heal the impacts of it. In the 1990s there was another shift in tone, and literature became  nostalgic for the Cultural Revolution. More specifically, women had nostalgia for the different opportunities they were presented with at this time to cross gender barriers in the workforce. Many women reflected on their ability to see the country in their work, develop themselves as independent women, and experience life in a different way than women who came before and after them. Criticisms. Post-Mao Era. The death of Mao Zedong ushered in China's Reform Era where many Maoist economic and social reforms were altered or repealed. The role of women in Chinese society would again change, this time towards  a more biological determinist view and the belief that women had an essential femininity and were fit for certain tasks and unfit for others. The image of the Iron Girl would be abandoned and the state would advocate for women to take up roles that were once again gendered. For example, many factory worker positions were filled by women while managerial positions were taken by men, as women were seen as easier to control and could learn assembly line work quicker than men. Some of the rural women who took up these jobs in the cities would find more economic  freedoms and even social mobility but also had to adapt to a society that placed increasing importance on gender. Feminist Critiques. During the 1980s, Iron Girls became subject to heavy criticism and mockery due to its focus on a gendered division of labor. Women's labor was more closely tied with their biological abilities and inabilities, while no such constraint was discussed for men. The controversy with the Iron Girls movement was the absence of gender issues among its agenda. Women and Men were expected to be the same, rather than different in their own ways. This was an issue  that was also observed within the Chinese Communist Party, which regarded feminism as a “bourgeois” concept. The message of the Iron Girls was very limited in regards to true feminism and equality, because they simply pushed women to become more like men. The government regarded masculine qualities as preferable to that of the domestic women, and depicted the standard of success as the imitation of men's talents. It was never argued that men could also strive to become more like women. This restricted women's development, because as long as the agenda of Iron Girls continued, the Communist Party  believed the issue of gender inequality was alleviated. However, Iron Girls were only a small amount of the population, so majority of the population did not see any gender-related changes a push for equality during this decade. Labor Inequality. Another criticism of this movement was its disregard of women's contribution to the domestic workforce. Even though women were encouraged to join previously male-dominated professions, they were still expected to be responsible for the domestic sphere. Yet these efforts were not applauded as an important contribution to society, and was mostly ignored. The issues of women's labor  during the Cultural Revolution was condensed into the new rise of Iron Girls. However, the Iron Girls were not representative of the entire Chinese society, as they were only a small portion of it. The model was heavily shaped and manipulated by local officials and urban women, and did not depict the entirety of cultural norms about labor. The Iron Girls movement also exceeded the physical capacity of many women. In turn, they suffered physical and gynecological diseases