was not appropriate for China. The income gap between rural and urban Chinese had widened. The situation was one Mao had begun to worry about before 1957, with his 1956 On the Ten Major Relationships identifying the important of "the relationship between heavy industry on one hand and light industry and agriculture on the other." The Great Leap Forward's focus on total workforce mobilization resulted in opportunities for women's labor advancement. As women became increasingly needed to work in agriculture and industry, and encouraged by policy to do so, the phenomenon of Iron Women arose. Women did traditionally male work in both fields and factories, including major movements of women into management positions. Women competed for high productivity, and those who distinguished themselves came to be called Iron Women. Cultural Revolution, 1966–76 The Cultural Revolution was set in motion by Mao Zedong in 1966 and called to a halt in 1968, but the atmosphere of radical leftism persisted until Mao's death and the fall of the Gang of Four in 1976. During this period, there were several distinct phases of economic policy. Until the Cultural Revolution, China had paid dividends to the former capitalist class from the value of property that had been seized in the revolution. "A campaign during the Cultural Revolution ended this practice.". Gang of Four, 1974–76 Mao's last years included a period of general economic disarray as a wave of strikes, factory slowdowns, and worker absenteeism arose in the majority of major industrial centers, accompanied by an increase in crime, including looting of state granaries. The rationing system expanded to cover more than 80 percent of staple items and consumer goods. However, by 1975 China's economy was performing well according to most conventional economic measures. Although the economy was not on the verge of collapse as some post-Mao historical narratives portray, it nonetheless faced pervasive economic difficulties caused by political instability and the consequences of China's developmentalist model, which prioritized growth in industrial and military capacity rather than consumption. Reform of the economic system, beginning in 1978 Despite political upheavals during the Mao era, China's GNP grew an average of 6.2% annually over the period 1952–1978. Industrialization during the Mao era resulted in the significant accumulation of both physical and human capital, which laid the foundation for China's successful reforms. The World Bank's first report on China assessed the Mao era positively, citing rapid growth and