This program offers an in-depth appraisal of how China’s women’s movement slowly gathered momentum under Mao Zedong’s and Deng Xiao Ping’s rule during the latter half of the 20th century. Outstanding footage from propaganda and documentary sources and compelling interviews with women who participated in the events of those decades reveal the hard-won gains through Communist legal and social reforms, the efforts of Madame Song Qing Ling and leading feminist He Xiang-ning, and women’s rights conventions. The mixed results of the Liberation and Independence campaign, the Heroes of the Nation initiative, and the Cultural Revolution are also critically examined. (55 minutes)