The women's liberation movement in Asia was a feminist movement that started in the late 1960s and through the 1970s. Women's liberation movements in Asia sought to redefine women's relationships to the family and the way that women expressed their sexuality. Women's liberation in Asia also dealt with particular challenges that made the liberation movement unique in different countries.
Several countries were influenced by Western women's liberation movements, and in the case of China, ideas from the Cultural Revolution actually helped shape women's liberation in the West. Many Asian feminists had to straddle the line between being feminist or being "Asian." In India, the caste system affected the way that women's liberation was approached in that gender and class could rarely be separated. Similarly in Israel, the plight of Palestinian women became important in molding the views of oppression. In Japan, the movement focused on sexuality rather than equality, in an attempt to gain recognition for women's autonomy and freedom to choose their own social roles. In Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, the liberationist movement was inspired by the worldwide movement for women's liberation and typically combined the fight against sexism with the struggle against colonialism and economic exploitation. Turkey came to the women's liberation movement later than other countries and was influenced by feminists from other countries and also by Islamic women. Turkey's struggle for women's liberation was centered around the issue of domestic violence.
China
Women's status in China during the twentieth century were tied closely to the Communist Revolution there and women's social status rose quickly. Initially, Chinese people believed that the Communist Revolution would end patriarchy. During the Cultural Revolution, women were celebrated through slogans like "Women Hold Up Half the Sky", while simultaneously they were discouraged from discussing gender issues, which was seen as "reactionary". In the 1970s, new institutions that benefited and were staffed by women were created, including cafeterias, kindergartens, and nurseries. Women's rights were managed by the state itself and there was no independent feminist movement during the period. However, many of the ideas created during the revolution went on to influence women's movements in the West, as radical feminists often were politically aligned on the left. In the polarized camps of the Cold War period, socialists turned from emulating Soviet communism in the wake of Stalinist purges and invasions. Western feminists after 1960 based key ideals on Maoist theory. Slogans such as "workers of the world unite" turned into "women of the world unite" and key features like consciousness-raising and egalitarian consensus-based policies "were inspired by similar techniques used in China".
India
Politics in India became radicalized in the late 1960s with numerous special interests groups forming to address corruption and the economic crisis brought about by destructive development. By the 1970s, drought in the Maharashtra state worsened conditions for many. Peaking in 1974 with encouragement from the Navnirman Movement, women in diverse classes began to engage in direct actions to challenge leadership. The idea of "women's liberation" became a "respectable topic" in India starting in the 1970s. Women began to see that legal protections were doing very little to change the reality of their lives. Rural women who lived in poverty began to see themselves as doubly disadvantaged: both economically and through their lower social status. Women in lower castes, such as Dalits, realized that they had to fight a class battle, as well as a battle against sexism. However, most women participating in the women's liberation movement in the 1970s were middle class or part of the upper caste, and were urban and educated.
The Women's Federation of Kerala had grown to 100,000 members by 1970 and the Ganatantrik Mahila Samiti (Democratic Women's Organization) held a state conference in April 1973 in West Bengal that drew 121,632 members from nearly every district. In 1974, organizations such as the Women's Anti-Price-Rise movement in Maharashtra, the Progressive Organization of Women (POW) of Hyderabad, and the Stree Mukti Sanghatana of Bombay formed, with women joining these leftist organizations in greater numbers. The first Democratic Women's Union conference was held in Tamil Nadu in December 1974. Student unrest and protest in Delhi sparked women to create their own human rights movement.