Genuine equality between the sexes can only be realized in the

“Genuine equality between the sexes can only be realized in the process of the socialist transformation of society as a whole.” These words of Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Revolution, are not merely political doctrine — they are a declaration of vision and struggle, an ancient truth spoken in modern form. Beneath them lies the recognition that equality between men and women is not a gift that can be granted by decree, nor a sentiment that can flourish in isolation. It must be built upon the foundation of justice in all things — economic, social, and spiritual. Mao’s insight is this: that one cannot liberate half of humanity while the other half remains bound to systems of greed, hierarchy, and oppression. Equality, to be genuine, must rise with the transformation of the entire world.

For thousands of years, women were confined by invisible chains — not only by law, but by tradition, by poverty, and by the slow tyranny of custom. The farmer’s wife, the weaver, the servant, the mother — all bore labor, yet few shared in power. Mao Zedong, speaking in the twentieth century, saw that the old order itself was the root of this inequality. In societies built upon exploitation — where wealth and privilege were hoarded by the few — women suffered doubly: as workers and as dependents. Thus he proclaimed that social transformation was the path to women’s freedom; that the liberation of the poor and the liberation of women were one and the same struggle. His was not a cry for courtesy or politeness toward women, but for a world reshaped so that all could stand equal upon the same ground.

The origin of Mao’s thought can be traced to the fires of revolution in early twentieth-century China. The feudal order had collapsed, yet the new world had not yet been born. Women, especially in rural regions, were still sold into marriage, denied education, and silenced under the weight of patriarchal rule. When the Communist movement rose, it brought with it the promise not only of class equality but of gender liberation. The slogan “Women hold up half the sky” was born in that era — a poetic cry that women’s labor, intellect, and courage were indispensable to the nation’s rebirth. Mao’s quote stands as the philosophical heart of that belief: that the equality of the sexes cannot exist apart from a just and communal order.

Consider the story of He Zizhen, one of the early women revolutionaries and Mao’s own comrade. She joined the Red Army as a young woman, marching through mud, hunger, and gunfire beside her male counterparts. She was not given a lesser role because of her gender; she was entrusted with leadership, endurance, and sacrifice. Through such examples, the revolution proved that when women are given equal purpose, they are as strong, as capable, and as heroic as any man. Their courage did not arise from privilege, but from the power of shared struggle — a testament to Mao’s belief that social equality breeds gender equality.

And yet, Mao’s teaching reaches beyond politics or ideology. At its core, it speaks of the interdependence of freedom. One cannot reform the condition of women while leaving society’s other injustices untouched. A world that still worships wealth, that exploits labor, that divides by class, will always find ways to chain the spirit of women. In every age and every land, the same truth endures: liberation is not a private possession — it is the fruit of collective transformation. When society itself becomes just, when its values are rooted in compassion and equality, then and only then can men and women stand as true equals, not rivals, but partners in the shaping of destiny.

The wisdom of the ancients echoes this lesson. The philosopher Plato, in his Republic, envisioned a society where women could be guardians alongside men, saying that “there is no function of the city that belongs to man alone.” Yet such harmony, he warned, could only exist in a just society — one governed not by appetite or ambition, but by the balance of the soul. So too did Mao Zedong proclaim, in his own age, that without transforming the very structure of society, talk of gender equality would remain mere rhetoric, like flowers planted in barren soil.

So let this be the teaching passed down: equality is not a gift, but a creation. It is forged through courage, through reform, through the collective will to build a fairer world. To empower women is not to weaken men, but to strengthen humanity itself — to bring balance where there was once division, and justice where there was once privilege. Let every generation remember Mao’s truth: that gender equality is not a matter of words, but of worlds — and that to achieve it, we must rebuild not only the laws of our nations, but the very hearts of our people. For when society is transformed, the chains fall not from one gender, but from all mankind, and the sky that women hold up together with men will at last be whole.