Chapter 127: Delaying marriage and childbearing to liberate women’s labor force
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After Zhang Guangzong left, Secretary Li, Director Zhong and Xie Yun discussed and determined the work for the next few days: meetings and training!
We must explain everything clearly and understandably to everyone. Policy is just a sentence, but to put it into practice, we must break it down and explain it to everyone in detail.
Drawing on the experience of various forums, exchanges, and training sessions held in later generations, Xie Yun developed a detailed meeting process, including the starting time, who would speak first, who would analyze policies, who would share experiences, and then a discussion session to answer everyone's questions.
In my previous life, I thought these meetings were annoying, but now I think they are still very necessary.
Otherwise, what then, if the above statement, "educated youth go to the countryside to receive re-education from the poor and lower-middle peasants," will be followed by? How will this be implemented? What kind of education will they receive? How should the peasants treat the educated youth? And how should the educated youth approach their future lives?
Everyone was completely in the dark and constrained by their cognitive limitations, so they didn't dare to take any big actions, and the results were not very satisfactory.
Not only do we need to train the brigade cadres, but we also need to go to the brigade to conduct propaganda, and the educated youth who come also need to receive training.
Xie Yun set the meeting procedures, and Secretary Li and Director Zhong were responsible for speaking. As for how to speak, Xie Yun suggested: "Let's put aside the idea of high moral character for now. We are commune cadres and we should first consider the interests of the members. When the educated youth come here, our first consideration is not only to take good care of them or make them feel at home, but also to let these people shine for our commune, develop agricultural production and the rural economy for us, and build our commune better.
As for how they can train themselves, learn, and improve themselves, we can just take that into account; it's a question they should think about themselves. If they have any requests, as long as they benefit themselves, the members, and the commune, we will actively support and assist them as much as possible.
Things that only benefit the educated youth and are not good for the commune can be done or not. Things that benefit the educated youth but are harmful to the commune must not be done. In essence, we are farmers, and our main concern should be farmers’ affairs.
The two leaders nodded, and their change of mind went very smoothly.
Before, their main concern was social harmony and stability, avoiding chaos, and believing that less trouble was better than more. There was even a hint of bullying, but now I think that shouldn't have happened. They have lost some of their enterprising spirit.
Seeing that they had all taken his advice in, Xie Yun felt relieved. The subsequent meeting organization work would be handled by Wang Yiming, the assistant to the two leaders.
Wang Yiming, also known as Xiao Wang who had previously called the various brigades to notify them of meetings, is the assistant to Secretary Li and Director Zhong. He looks very ordinary, but he has a beautiful wife. His wife is not only good-looking, but also has a good personality, a sweet smile, speaks softly, is polite and considerate in her dealings, and even brings him lunch at noon. There is no one in the entire commune who is not envious of Xiao Wang.
Zhao Hongxia often grumbled to Xie Yun, "I don't know what my sister-in-law likes about him. I wish I were Wang Yiming."
Xie Yun almost died of laughter. Although Wang Yiming was not good-looking, he should be a good husband to his wife. His wife, Yu Manqing, was 27 years old, the same age as him. She still looked as innocent as a young girl, and it was obvious that she lived a very comfortable life. Wang Yiming's clothes were patched, while Yu Manqing wore new clothes, made of fashionable materials from the supply and marketing cooperative.
The couple had no children. Yu Manqing was afraid of pain and the prospect of looking ugly, so she didn't want to have children. Wang Yiming followed her lead, saying they didn't want to have any. It seemed that the guy had taken all the family planning supplies allocated to Taoyuan Commune.
For the beautiful Yu Manqing, compared with these advantages, appearance may not be that important.
After handing the work over to Wang Yiming, Xie Yun went to the post office and sent out the article and illustrations.
Wang Yiming could also be asked to send the items, but Xie Yun had been sitting in the office for a long time and wanted to go out for a walk, get some fresh air, and exercise, so she was willing to go there herself.
After returning, she sneaked into the office of the director of women's affairs.
The commune's women's director was Zhang Qiheng, a woman in her late 50s who had been involved in women's affairs for many years. Xie Yun and Yan Guixiang had gotten to know her and knew her to be a principled and self-disciplined person who upheld women's rights and resolutely refused to compromise.
However, the position of commune women's director was a little distant from the real grassroots level, with fewer things to manage, so relatively speaking, she was a little idle. Xie Yun wanted to keep her busy.
"Director Zhang."
"Binbin, are you not busy now?"
"Well, I don't have anything to do today. I came to chat with you, learn about your work experience, and also learn about the situation of women's work in our commune."
Zhang Qiheng smiled and said, "Sit down. What do you want to tell me? I heard from Guixiang that you must have something to say to someone."
Xie Yun laughed heartily, "Am I already notorious?"
Zhang Qiheng said, "Don't talk nonsense. This isn't a bad reputation. This is Guixiang's compliment to you. She told me that you, a young comrade, are very smart. We, the older comrades, should talk to you more and understand the ideas of young people. Tell me, what do you want to say?"
Xie Yun didn't hesitate, pulled a chair and sat across from her, saying, "I want to talk to you about family planning and delayed marriage and childbearing."
The country began to promote family planning in the 1950s. The Ministry of Health revised and issued the "Measures for Contraception and Artificial Abortion" in July 1954. Many national leaders have delivered relevant speeches. The Chairman once said, "We must promote birth control and have planned childbirth."
At that time, family planning was only promoted and advocated. It did not require people to have only one child, but emphasized planning.
In 1964, the State Council established the Family Planning Commission, responsible for family planning publicity, technical guidance, investigation, research, supervision and inspection of family planning work nationwide. Each province, autonomous region, and municipality also established corresponding organizations or designated personnel within their health departments to be responsible for family planning work.
However, in 1968, with the rise of the movement, the State Council Family Planning Commission was abolished and family planning work came to a standstill.
Zhang Qiheng smiled and said, "Tell me about it. We've done some publicity here before, but it wasn't very strong."
Xie Yun smiled and said, "I don't really understand this either, so I'll just share some of my thoughts with you. I've read some newspaper articles and posters, and I think the idea of late marriage and late childbirth is particularly good."
Once we women have children, we tend to be tied down by household chores, leaving us with fewer opportunities to work outside. For example, when I was training for the militia, the female soldiers were all childless. Once they did, they couldn't leave their homes.
In addition, childbirth is harmful to the body, especially for our female members. They have to work in the fields before giving birth, and some of them cannot even take good care of themselves after giving birth, and have to continue working in the fields. Many people suffer from illness and pain as a result, and do not receive good treatment.
In fact, childbirth causes too much harm to women's bodies. That's why I support having fewer children and marrying and having children later in life.
The newspapers previously mentioned that it's recommended that urban men marry at 28 and women at 25, and that rural men marry at 25 and women marry at 23. I think this is a good idea. As people age, their thinking matures. They won't just get married and have children blindly, and then spend their lives in that state.
Zhang Qiheng nodded: "Do you have any suggestions for publicity?"
Poster published in September 1960: "Liberated from tedious housework, wholeheartedly contributing to socialist construction"
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