ACWF later. The Chinese women’s movement gained a new momentum with the Second Sino-Japanese war (1937–1945). Leaders of the women's movement expressed nationalist sentiments in response to the threat the war posed to their daily lives. These leaders called for the liberation of women to defend the nation. The number of official women’s organization within the CCP at one of the soviets, Yan’an, grew during the invasion. In March 1938, at the First Women’s Congress held by the Women’s Federation of Shaan-Gan-Ning (a forerunner to the ACWF) in a different communist-controlled area, the leaders of the women's movement began to form their nationalist ideas into an agenda. The women in attendance stated that the goal of the women’s movement should be to unite women and to work together to liberate China. The First Women's Congress also outlined goals for the women's movement such as: helping women escape abusive marriages, improving women’s health, eradicating the practice of foot binding, ending domestic abuse, and protecting women’s inheritance rights. The ACWF would adopt many of the same goals in 1949. 1949–1966: Founding and early years The All-China Democratic Women’s Federation was established on 24 March 1949 as China's first country-wide women’s organization, and would be renamed the All-China Women's Federation later that year. Women who had been dominant in the women’s movement and the CCP were included in the federation’s leadership. Cai Chang, a prominent leader in the women’s movement since, an active CCP member, and a veteran of the Long March, was the first chair of the organization. The organization began as a federation of various regional women’s groups with the dual goals of building a socialist China and promoting the status of women. The ACWF soon developed beyond its original mission of promoting gender equality, and it became a tool used by the party to mobilize women for economic, political and ideological motives. The early stages of the organization were characterized by a focus on Marxist–Leninist ideology. The CCP viewed the women’s movement as a part of the larger Chinese revolution against the feudal past, but some leaders in the CCP argued that because most of the women continued to do domestic work, and did not actively participate in the revolution, this contradicted the Marxist–Leninist ideology. The ACWF contested this assertion, stating that the economic conditions were not at the point where jobs could be provided to all women. Therefore, housekeepers,