Holding up Half the Sky: Chinese Women Past, Present, and Future

Mao Zedong's famous statement that "women hold up half the sky" marked a new recognition of Chinese women's contributions to their society—but only today is there a rich and extensive body of research by Chinese women about women in China.

Drawing together work by many of China's most distinguished women scholars, this collection presents twenty-one essays that address issues relating to women in the workplace, women's education, and women's role in marriage, family, and in cultural and political life. With statistics and accounts otherwise unavailable in the West, they reveal a feminist activism among China's women that is breathtaking both for the problems it confronts and for the spirit of the struggle it embodies.