I wasn't thought no such history as that of Mao Zedong back in school, I became familiar with his exemplary past life through research. For the record, I think western nations have a way of always undermining one nation in a bid to assume might and superiority over another and more nations.
If you go through recorded history of Mao Zedong with an open mind, you'd realize he was a fine leader, a leader the vast majority of china loves and still dominates their list of greatest leaders with others like ancient Qin Shi Huang, 12th century Kublai Khan and 80's Deng Xiaoping to mention a few. Asides from the failure of his "cultural revolution" and "great leap forward" initiatives which when implemented were responsible for greatly affecting china's economy and caused a large scale famine respectively, Mao Zedong did great in other aspect like issues concerning women rights.
History has it that during Mao's young age, he was active on groups that opposed china's tradition on feudal marriages. A certain piece he published made the public aware of his opinion and stands on fair treatment for women. He criticized societal neglect on the needs of women and how the feeling of always being dominated by men and the system has left them oppressed. He went further by giving it a name, "Feudal Patriarchy". In the year of 1945 through the writings of his "Little Red Book", Mao demanded for freedom of marriage and equality as between men and women.
Mao Zedong wasn't just known for his famous role in leading China towards communism and keeping it alive, his infamous Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, he was also known for the fight of women's right justice.