Mao's leadership from 1950-1969
To what extent did Mao Zedong’s leadership bring change to China in the years 1960-69?
Mao Zedong’s leadership, from 1960 to 1969, brought a great extent of change to all aspects of peoples lives.
His leadership greatly changed women’s role in China. In 1950, he was determines to change old attitudes to women and make them be equal to men, and not be seen as second-class citizens. So, Mao introduced the Marriage Law, which placed women legally on an equal basis with men and broke the power of the traditional, male-dominated family, which had kept women in subjection. One of the main laws of the Marriage law was that arranged marriages and the marriages of children were made illegal. Furthermore, it also introduced divorce; during the first year more than a million married couples divorced. In addition, Mao had maternity benefits be introduced. Even though he had introduced all these positive laws, old attitudes to women persisted in the countryside and Muslim areas. However, the Marriage Law brought a big positive change to Chinese peoples lives.
In 1956, Mao launched the Hundred Flowers Campaign. The campaign encouraged Chinese citizens to have freedom of speech. He allowed open criticism of the party, its policies and its leaders. Moa thought that this campaign would help him become a better leader as he feared that the CCP was losing much of its early popularity, as the peasants disliked collectivisation, intellectuals resented censorship, working conditions were hard and their were food shortages. Moreover, another reason for launching this campaign was because he wanted to boost the economy, was concerned he was going to be denounced like Stalin and he feared that the party and the army were in danger of becoming “bureaucratic.” There was a rush to respond and criticise Mao. Many people criticised the 5 Year plan and party officials were attacked as being corrupt. The criticism was too much for Mao and he suddenly cracked down on his critics and
Mao Zedong’s leadership, from 1960 to 1969, brought a great extent of change to all aspects of peoples lives.
His leadership greatly changed women’s role in China. In 1950, he was determines to change old attitudes to women and make them be equal to men, and not be seen as second-class citizens. So, Mao introduced the Marriage Law, which placed women legally on an equal basis with men and broke the power of the traditional, male-dominated family, which had kept women in subjection. One of the main laws of the Marriage law was that arranged marriages and the marriages of children were made illegal. Furthermore, it also introduced divorce; during the first year more than a million married couples divorced. In addition, Mao had maternity benefits be introduced. Even though he had introduced all these positive laws, old attitudes to women persisted in the countryside and Muslim areas. However, the Marriage Law brought a big positive change to Chinese peoples lives.
In 1956, Mao launched the Hundred Flowers Campaign. The campaign encouraged Chinese citizens to have freedom of speech. He allowed open criticism of the party, its policies and its leaders. Moa thought that this campaign would help him become a better leader as he feared that the CCP was losing much of its early popularity, as the peasants disliked collectivisation, intellectuals resented censorship, working conditions were hard and their were food shortages. Moreover, another reason for launching this campaign was because he wanted to boost the economy, was concerned he was going to be denounced like Stalin and he feared that the party and the army were in danger of becoming “bureaucratic.” There was a rush to respond and criticise Mao. Many people criticised the 5 Year plan and party officials were attacked as being corrupt. The criticism was too much for Mao and he suddenly cracked down on his critics and