The Female Oil Militia

A team of 78 young women (average age: 23) working at the oil drilling station of Daqing, also undergo military training three times a week outside of working hours, learning how to shoot, use a bayonette, and throw grenades. In addition they tend a vegetable garden and raise livestock. In the little leisure time afforded them they play sports or study geology and the management of oil wells, in order to modernize and increase their production. They have already produced 3,000,000 tons of petrol since 1970 (seven times more than what was produced 42 years before liberation). (Photo by Alain Nogues/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)