Christina Kelley Gilmartin rewrites the history of gender politics in the 1920s with this compelling assessment of the impact of feminist ideals on the Chinese Communist Party during its formative years. For the first time, Gilmartin reveals the extent to which revolutionaries in the 1920s were committed to women's emancipation and the radical political efforts that were made to overcome women's subordination and to transform gender relations.

Women activists whose experiences and achievements have been previously ignored are brought to life in this study, which illustrates how the Party functioned not only as a political organization but as a subculture for women as well. We learn about the intersection of the personal and political lives of male communists and how this affected their beliefs about women's emancipation. Gilmartin depicts with thorough and incisive scholarship how the Party formulated an ideological challenge to traditional gender relations while it also preserved aspects of those relationships in its organization.

Christina Kelley Gilmartin is Assistant Professor of History at Northeastern University. She is the coeditor of Engendering China: Women, Culture, and the State (1994).

"Gilmartin paints a carefully detailed history of the radical women involved in the revolution and communist politics from 1920 to 1927. . . . [She] elucidates vividly the ways in which women’s relatively small role in revolutionary activism paradoxically became a symbol for the structural changes attached to gender reform. . . . This history of women’s involvement in early communist politics provides an excellent analysis of radical women’s contributions, the progressive impulse of male CCP leaders, and, ultimately, the structural impediments to women’s exercise to agency and full political participation in China."—American Political Science Review

"By using gender as an important category of analysis in the study of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party], Gilmartin has made a significant contribution to understanding a less-studied dimension of modern Chinese history. . . . [She] produces a fascinating account of how women participated in the revolution, how the revolution's discourses challenged the patriarchal family structure, and man-dominated social and legal practice in Chinese society. . . . Those interested in China's modern history, the Chinese revolution, and women's studies will find this book highly valuable."—Choice

"Gilmartin’s research is thorough and meticulous. She has extensively used materials which were largely inaccessible until the late 1970s and methodically analysed these against existing historical accounts. Her detailed reconstruction of the lives of the major women activists of the period is admirable. . . . . Gilmartin’s methodology of ‘engendering’ the Chinese Revolution has resulted in a decidedly different picture of events."—Asian Studies Review

"One is given an insight into the exciting, dynamic new force that was the Chinese Communist Party, and the dimensions and boundaries of power within its already emerging hierarchy."—China Now

"A groundbreaking book for gender and radical political studies. It has applications for both Chinese political history and women's studies, and would be appropriate for courses in each area. Based on original research and carefully articulated arguments, Gilmartin's work provides a wealth of information that significantly contributes to the field of political culture in twentieth century China."—H-Asia

"Gilmartin portrays the ways in which women's emancipation was a central goal of the Chinese Communist government but one that was compromised by central aspects of the dominant patriarchy. Feminist activists interested in radical political movements can learn much from this history."—Feminist Bookstore News

"Gilmartin contributes a spectrum of valuable conclusions. . . . [This work] helps to end the isolation of ‘women’s studies’ by showing that feminism and the activities of women were elements central to the history of Chinese radicalism in the 1920s."—History

"A long-overdue rewriting of gender politics in 1920s China. Gilmartin brings women activists alive."—Emily Honig, author of Sisters and Strangers