The inequality of status between women and men was ingrained in the Chinese tradition of a patriarchal society. Mao’s government tried to openly portray themselves(?) as believers in equality of women and men. Equality of status is a state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in all respects of society. In order to measure how equal their status was between 1949 till 1976, we have to examine their domestic lives, work lives and political futures. In the domestic sphere, women gained some equality with men. One of the first acts introduced by Mao’s government was a new marriage law. In 1945, on the verge of revolution, Mao demanded that the law would "ensure freedom of marriage and equality as between men and women," (from Women in The Little Red Book). However, this was written in the Little Red Book which was a tool used by the government to portray Mao as infallible, so whatever is written in it should be treated with caution as it is written in a book with a political agenda. The marriage law abolished concubinage, arranged marriages, dowry and bride- price payments. It also allowed women to divorce their partners. This was a practical measure to give women freedom from the captivity of forced marriages, this gesture shows his words in 1945 were not just talk. The party also outlawed foot binding, which was used as a tool to prevent women’s movements and to make them more attractive to men. Making this illegal gave women control over their bodies. In the 1950s, Women were given the right to own and sell property, a privilege which by tradition was only granted to men. This action was symbolic of Mao, as it showed that he did not only profess the view of equality but was taking steps to make it a reality. However much of the apparent gain from owning property was undermined by Collectivisation, which was introduced in 1956. This pooled all the land and resources on the land together in farm collectives, which meant that the owner of the land did not matter as it became the property of the communes. Communes freed women from the drudgery of finding and preparing food because everyone ate in the mess halls. A large flaw in the concept is the fact that the people who were undoubtedly still cooked for the communes and did all the domestic work were still women. The difference was now some women did not have to do it. The marriage law introduced had a special clause, giving the soldiers in the PLA, the legal right to override their wife’s plea for divorce. This was against the equality of women and the freedom of marriage that Mao claimed to want to establish. Mao, during the 1949-1976 period, did give women some equality with men on issues concerning property and marriage but he did not give them total equality in allowing male soldiers to overrule a wife’s plea for divorce. The introduction of communes also stripped the women of the gains of owning property, although that was not the purpose of communes; they were made to increase the production of food. The communes also cared for