From 1966 to 1979, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution redefined China’s political and historical atmosphere for rural Chinese women. Although there is literature that examines gender reforms, family reform and women rights, there is limited scholarly work about how rural women's labor force partipation during the Cultural Revolution affected them. This research examines how the historical mobilization of women during the Cultural Revolution led to the formation of new labor roles for rural women during the late 1960s and through the 1970s. By analyzing journals, letters, diaries, published books, and government publications, this critical review will establish an understanding of the new labor roles rural women created during this time. This research will argues that new labor roles for rural women had a positive and negative on the labor market during the Cultural Revolution. Furthermore this research is important to document how rural women's integration into the labor force would be a key component for attaining equality between women and men.
