Gender Equity, an Essential Premise of the Cuban Revolution

Much work has been done in Cuba to achieve the extremely necessary gender equity. In the case of women living in the eastern province of Camagüey, they represent more than 50 percent of the labor leaders at all levels, including those considered professional cadres, being more than 60 percent of the total.

Camagüey-resident women are tremendously indebted to the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC by its acronym in Spanish), an organization that has shown excellent results over the last several years and which is close to celebrate its 53rd anniversary.

The Federation has made headways in the women's massive incorporation into the wage labor force, especially in positions which demand high skills of their workers in every area of the economy and society. Women’s participation in the political and entrepreneurial management has also been on the rise across the island nation.

Women’s achievements have been abundant in Cuba, and they have been possible -to a large extent- thanks to the organization they are members of.

However much still remains to be done, above all to get rid of male chauvinist mindsets that are still present in a great deal of the population, beliefs and prejudices inherited from a culture that legitimized every possible inequalities before 1959, simply based on social classes, color of the skin and gender.

The premier challenges of the FMC in today’s Cuba are to face obsolete ideals and make possible than women can climb even higher positions in the life of the country.

For such a purpose, they count on the wholehearted support -since the very triumph of the Cuban Revolution- of the authorities of the government and of the Communist Party in the island nation, who have never called into question the capacity of theirs.

The words of our National Hero Jose Marti are a maxim and a reality in today’s Cuba when he said: “…without a woman’s smile, the man’s glory is incomplete” and “…victory is incomplete when it is not driven by a woman’s heart”.

By Mariela Peña Seguí / Radio Cadena Agramonte