Dr Aleida Guevara speaking at the University of Sheffield

Dr Aleida Guevara - paediatrician, medical mission veteran and daughter of Che - speaking at the University of Sheffield to Forge TV as part of her 2014 speaking tour organised by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign. Watch her speak on issues such as education, the NHS, gender equality, ebola, internationalism and more below.

Cuba rated best developing country for women and mothers

Last month, Unison Women’s conference adopted a motion citing Cuba as a role model for women in public roles. In the UK, only 22% of MPs in the House of Commons are women – but in Cuba women hold 43% of parliamentary seats in the National Assembly.

As the motion noted:

The Cuban Constitution guarantees women economic, political, social, cultural and family rights and opportunities equal to those of men. Article 32 of the Cuban Constitution, states that women and men enjoy the same economic, political, cultural, social and family rights

Prior to the revolution, the proportion of women in the labour force was just 12%. According to figures from 2010, women now represent 47% of employees in the civil state sector; 67% of college graduates; 66% of technicians and professionals and over 70% of health workers.

The advance of gender inequality has been underpinned by legislation including:

The Maternity Leave Bill (1974) which ensures that women are guaranteed a total of 18 weeks paid leave with an extra 2 weeks if the birth is delayed. The Bill also includes “the option of an extended leave at 60% of pay until the child is one year old, with the right to return to the same job at the end of the leave” – an option which can be taken by the mother or the father.

The Family Code Bill (1975) which has as its official goal the equal participation of both sexes in the household.

At the heart of the struggle for female representation has been the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) which was formed in 1960. The FMC – a non-governmental organisation with over 3 million members – is the largest mass organisation in Cuba and the largest women’s organisation in Latin America. The FMC’s objectives include the “fight for full incorporation, participation and promotion of women into the economic, political, social and cultural life of the country in conditions of equal rights and opportunities”. Its membership equates to 80% of Cuba’s female population.

Last year, Save the Children – in its annual Mother’s Index Report – ranked Cuba first out of the “Lesser Developed Countries” in both the mother’s index and the women’s index; and ninth in the children’s index. By comparison, the U.S. – which is in the “More Developed Countries” tier – ranks 31st in the mother’s index, 24th in the women’s index and 34th in the children’s index.

The UK charity reported that 100% of births in Cuba are attended by skilled health personnel, with female life expectancy at over 80 years. Cuba also has the highest expected years of formal schooling for women in the “Less Developed Countries” tier, at 19 years. Save the Children’s findings echo high rankings Cuba has achieved in other international studies including the annual Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum

Further Reading

Haydee Santamaria – Rebel Lives – Rebel Lives is the story of a female guerrilla leader whose passion for art and revolution inspired Latin America's cultural renaissance. Haydee was one of two women who participated in the armed attack that sparked the Cuban revolution and later became director of the literary institution, Casa de las Americas. Buy it here.

Marianas in Combat – This is the story of Brigadier General Tete Puebla, the highest ranking woman in Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces, and charts her life from joining the revolution at the age of 15 to her fight to transform the social and economic status of women. Buy it here.

Making a Scene: Cuban Women’s Stories – This bilingual collection of short stories is edited by Cuban writer and academic Mirta Yanez, and features a stunning range of narratives, from Aida Bahr’s "Not Quite Perfect/Imperfecciones" moving account of old age to Ana Luz García Calzada’s exceptional "The Guests/Los Convidados". This book offers a broad selection of themes, styles, and writing techniques as well as compelling storytelling. Buy it here.

Reyita –The Life of a Black Cuban Woman in the Twentieth Century – Reyita is the amazing life story of a black Cuban woman who lived through racism and dictatorships, taught herself to read, took part in black politics, lost a son in the revolution and went on to have over one hundred grandchildren. Buy it here.

The Maids of Havana – This compelling novel is based on stories and memories of poet and writer Pedro Perez Sarduy’s mother. Set in Cuba and the USA – from 1938 to the 1990s – two Afro-Cuban women tell their stories. The book explores what life was like for Afro-Cubans before and after the Cuban revolution. Race, class, gender and nation are all examined. Buy it here.

Letters of Love & Hope – Introduced by Alice Walker – with preface by Cuban poet Nancy Morejón – this book includes excerpts from diaries and letters between the Miami Five and their families in Cuba. The collection provides rare insight into how ordinary families strive to maintain connections in extraordinary circumstances. The book also includes a succinct legal analysis of the case by attorney Leonard Weinglass outlining how it has significantly violated both international law and the U.S. Constitution. Buy it here.

Women and the Cuban Revolution – This book recounts women's changing role in Cuba since the revolution: the measures taken, the gains made, and the problems that still remain. It includes speeches on the subject by Fidel Castro and women's federation leader Vilma Espin. Also contained are several important Cuban documents such as the Maternity Law for Working Women and and excerpts from the Cuban Family Code. Buy it here.

Talking about a Revolution

In celebration of the centenary of International Women's Day, we have re-published an interivew with Carolina Amador Pérez from the the Federation of Cuban Women’s (FMC) and Gilda Chacón Bravo from the CTC (Cuban Trade Union Central) which took place in April 2009.

Additionally, CSC are hosting Mujeres, a Cuban cultral night in celebration of International Women's Day at Conway Hall, London on 19th March.

Carolina Amador and Gilda Chacón, leading members of the Cuban women’s and trade union movement spoke to CSC’s Lotte Deckers Dowber on their nationwide tour. The tour was made possible through support from Unison’s General Political Fund offered Chance to build new links between the FMC and UK institutions and bring the agenda of women’s rights in the UK and Cuba to the fore.

Mujeres: An evening of live Cuban music, dance and poetry to celebrate International Women's Day

At Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London. Saturday 19th March from 7pm.

Feminising the revolution

Before 1959, women’s experience of Cuban society was often one of oppression, exploitation, marginalisation and hardship. Few women worked and those that did often found themselves working as domestic servants or prostitutes for the international elite and mafia. Few women were educated and a strong culture of ‘machismo’, defined as a Latin notion of male superiority and aggressiveness, permeated all aspects of life for women.

Of course, it is important not to homogenise all women, experience depended not only on gender but on class, race, age and whether they lived in town or country. But overall, the picture was a bleak one in which women had limited opportunities and led a tough existence.

Societal changes

The Revolutionary leadership in 1959 therefore faced a huge task. From the very beginning the problem of gender inequality was tackled head on – not put off for a later stage. Gender equality was seen as integral to the general goals, the general struggle of the Revolution. Women’s rights were seen as interwoven with, not separate from, the essence of the Revolution. Fundamentally, this was because it was believed that a fair, non-discriminatory society could not be created whilst women were still oppressed.

This led to what Fidel coined the ‘Revolution within a Revolution’ and allowed for huge steps forward to be made, very quickly. It has resulted in Cuba being ranked first place for equality levels within Latin America and the Caribbean and 25th worldwide by the 2008 Global Gender Gap Report (the US ranks twenty seventh).

Cuba was the first country to sign and second to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and also has high levels of participation and representation in decision-making positions and has made huge educational advances.

It has also led to significant legal changes such as the introduction of Article forty four of the Constitution,

which ensures that women have complete equality under the law, and Law sixty-two of the Penal Code (1987), which ensures that discrimination and the violation of the rights of equality are defined as a crime.

Federation of Cuban Women

One of the first things the new leadership did was set up the FMC (Federacion de Mujeres Cubanas), which acts as testament to the notion that gender equality was part of the Revolution’s overall goals from the beginning.

Officially created in 1960, the FMC is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) with over three million members, which equates to eighty per cent of the entire female population. It is the largest mass organisation in Cuba and the largest women’s organisation in Latin America. FMC objectives include to ‘fight for full incorporation, participation and promotion of women into the economic, political, social and cultural life of the country in conditions of equal rights and opportunities’.

The FMC is the key leader in the struggle for equality and can be credited with initiating literacy drives for peasant women and prostitutes in 1959.

Groundbreaking FMC societal educational campaigns also attempted to root out machismo - this has even led to sex education in schools encompassing teaching of respectful attitudes not just towards women but the LGBT community too.

Health

Cuba is known worldwide for its excellent and progressive health system which offers free healthcare to all. This, in particular, is seen as being particularly ‘women friendly’. The government introduced the Maternity Leave Bill (1974) which ensures that women are guaranteed a total of eighteen weeks paid leave with an extra two weeks if the birth is delayed (the US in comparison offers not a single week of paid leave). The Bill also includes ‘the option of an extended leave at 60 per cent pay until the child is one year old, with the right to return to the same job at the end of the leave’ - an option which can be taken by the mother or the father. The government also subsidises abortion and family planning, places a high value on pre-natal care and breastfeeding and offers ‘maternity housing’ to women before giving birth.

Focus is given to women not solely as recipients of healthcare but as providers too. Pioneering drives that encourage women to become doctors and nurses have led to more than half of doctors in Cuba being women (fifty-two per cent in 2008 according to the FMC). The importance given to women’s health has led to an impressive life expectancy of seventy-nine years according to a report published in The Guardian in 2007 – all achieved on a restricted budget.

Education

Like healthcare, education in Cuba is free to everyone, including higher education. Education formed one of the core pillars of the Revolution. The theory being that by educating all people the old divisions would be eliminated and therefore everyone could move towards a just, fair and equal society. This has benefited women enormously and led to greater opportunities and independence.

Women have gradually filtered into the education system leading to the so-called ‘feminisation of education’. This makes for stark comparison with pre-revolutionary society in which girls and women (predominately in rural areas) were illiterate and confined to the home.

Economy and Politics

The proportion of women in the labour force in 1959 was twelve per cent, and as mentioned the work women were confined to was largely that of domestic servitude and prostitution. This differs vastly with life today in which women make up forty-nine per cent of the workforce.. Women are also guaranteed equal pay and through government childcare assistance and forward-thinking laws such as the Family Code Bill (1975), which is the official goal of equal participation in the household, women have been able to engage fully in working life. This had led to greater independence and a shift of power in gender relations.

Women are also changing the gender make-up of government. According to a report by UNIFEM, they held forty-three per cent of positions in parliament in 2008, compared to just under seventeen per cent in the US. This statistic ranks Cuba second in the world for female participation in parliament according to the 2008 Global Gender Gap Report. This success can largely be accredited to the introduction of quotas and various forms of positive discrimination.

Reflections

It is important not to romanticise or idealise the position of women in Cuba, there are still challenges, problems and work to be done. For example, how to deal with the problem of prostitution, which despite being eradicated in the nineties has now returned due to the growth of tourism, (a phenomenon that inevitably brings with it a minority of male visitors who hold particular views of the ‘exotic’ Cuban female and exploit their greater economic power). Another challenge is that of cultural attitudes, which although have changed significantly in the last fifty years are still filtered with sexist dogmas.

The culture of machismo is still one of the main obstacles to overcome. As the late Vilma Espin, the FMC’s long-standing president once stated “a cultural tradition dating back centuries is not broken from one day to the next”.

Like here, until full equality has been achieved, until all areas of Cuban life are split fifty-fifty, it will be impossible to talk of complete success. Despite these continuous challenges there is much to remain positive about. Cuba has made huge advances towards equality, especially in areas of political participation and healthcare and in creating a progressive legal framework which sets the standard for what is acceptable treatment and acts as a point of reference that can be used for defending women’s rights.

These advances should also be put into context. Cuba is a developing country and so faces poverty and limited resources. It is regionally positioned within Latin America and the Caribbean in which a strong culture of machismo exists. It has also been subject to a long-standing blockade which again has led to limited resources. Its aheivements are therefore impressive in themselves, let alone when considered within these contexts.

Cuba’s advances are also extremely impressive when viewed in a global context - to think that despite all the shortcomings mentioned above it is still able to position itself highly worldwide with regards to equality levels.

Essentially, the Cuban experience can be seen as a model and a source of inspiration worldwide. It shows what can be achieved when a government and society have the values of justice, equality, and participatory democracy at the core of its belief system, ethos and framework for policy and practice.

Report by Lotte Deckers Dowber.