HOW DID CUBA'S AUTHORITARIAN STATE IMPACT WOMEN?

With 12% of the labor force and 3% of university graduates (Domínguez et al..., 2020,

p. 42), women were in a truly critical situation on the Caribbean island of Cuba in 1953, the

same year in which Fidel Castro suffered his first revolutionary failure in his attempt to take

the Moncada Barracks, an event which, nevertheless, would be recorded in history as the

precedent of what, six years later, would become the definitive victory of the pro-Soviet

revolution, whose objectives would indeed include the improvement of the social, economic

and political status of women. The analysis of the measures that Castro's totalitarianism would

take for that purpose from 1959 onwards, will be explained in the following part of this essay.

Immediately after the triumph of the revolution, the Fundamental Law of 1959 was

formulated with constitutional rank, of which we can highlight its article 43, element of the

title "of the family and culture". A fragment of the same stipulated:

"Married women enjoy full civil capacity, without the need for marital license or

authorization to govern their property, freely exercise trade, industry, profession, trade

or art, and dispose of the proceeds of their work [...] Alimony in favor of the wife and

children shall have preference over any obligation, and this preference may not be

opposed to the unattachable condition of any property, salary, pension or economic

income, of any kind whatsoever".

The purpose of the law is, therefore, to give women the freedom to work and preference

in alimony, measures directly aimed at the Cuban economic system1. At the same time, Cuban

totalitarianism managed to group, in the same year, several of the existing feminist

organizations of the time into a single block in charge of the Federation of Cuban Women,

1
It is worth noting that the concession to women to "dispose of the product of their work" is evidence of the
government's Marxist influence.
which was responsible for denouncing the systemic problems of women, as well as ensuring

their solutions (Alvarez, 1995). To this must be added the expansion of the state in the

economy, which inevitably included the female sector at some point.

The purpose of the law is, therefore, to give women the freedom to work and preference

in alimony, measures directly aimed at the Cuban economic system. At the same time, Cuban

totalitarianism managed to group, in the same year, several of the existing feminist

organizations of the time2 into a single block in charge of the Federation of Cuban Women,

which was responsible for denouncing the systemic problems of women, as well as ensuring

their solutions (Alvarez, 1995). To this must be added the expansion of the state in the

economy, which inevitably included the female sector at some point.

With regard to abortion, Cuba is crowned as the first country in the region, in Latin

America, to decriminalize abortion, progressively with legal changes in interpretations and

legislation since 1961, when a flexible legal body incorporated the practice of abortion in the

National Health System, until the current Penal Code, in which abortion is punished in the case

of abortion for profit, against the will of the mother, or in the absence of a space and specialized

personnel. If abortion were also considered an advance in the emancipation of women, we

could grant these policies as an achievement of the Cuban State in this matter.

By 1997, gender equality objectives were introduced into official government planning.

This was confirmed by the National Action Plan for Follow-up to the Beijing Conference when

it subscribed to the agreements reached at the IV UN Conference on Women, which considered

crucial areas at a global level in relation to women, including poverty, education, health,

violence, the economy, human rights, the environment and childhood.

2
Mention can be made of the Democratic Federation of Cuban Women, the Revolutionary Women's Brigades,
the Agrarian Column, the Humanist Women's Group and the Sisterhood of Mothers Group (Domínguez, 2020, p.
43).
 However, although women's presence in productive activity has improved - especially

in the long term (see Figure 1) - recent studies, such as that of Arelys Esquenazi and Susset

Rosales, indicate that "women are approximately 23. 5 percentage points less likely to

participate in the Cuban labor market, in relation to men" (2017, p. 8), or that, in the population

with higher level of education, men present a probability of almost 88% of participating in the

labor market while that same data, is for women of 70.71% (Esquenazi et al., 2017, p. 13).

Indeed, it is enough to observe the council of ministers of the provisional revolutionary

government, immediately after its triumph in the coup against Batista, to realize that the

emancipation of women was a priority in discourse rather than in practice: Fidel Castro

(Delegate of Armed Institutes and Commander in Chief of the Sea, Air and Land Forces), Rego

Rubido (Chief of the Army General Staff), Gaspar Brooks (Chief of the Navy", Efigenio

Ameijeiras Delgado (Chief of the National Police) (Suarez, 1959, p. 2), etc. All ministerial

positions since then and up to the present have been held strictly by men.

Figure 1

Labor force participation rate, women (% of female population aged 15-64) (ILO modeled

estimate) - Cuba.

Graphic taken of the World Bank (2022).

https://datos.bancomundial.org/indicator/SL.TLF.ACTI.FE.ZS?end=2010&locations=CU&start=1990
 ***

In summary, the Cuban Revolution, and the totalitarian socialist government it brought

with it, has positioned itself in favor of women and the improvement of their social, economic

and political conditions, in consonance with the objectives agreed internationally at the UN,

with the approval of legislations that guarantee the legal equality of women, The possibility for

women to abort their unborn child, resulting in a notable increase in the participation of women

in the labor market, but even with considerable disadvantages for them, not to mention the

questionable example set by the government regarding the inclusion of women in the life of

the polis in the formation of their own cabinets. More detailed conclusions would require a

more extensive analysis, but, for now, it can be affirmed that the efforts have been significant,

but only indicate that further progress can and should be made.

- Alexander Chávez
 Referencias

Banco Mundial. (2023). Tasa de participación en la fuerza laboral, mujeres (% de la

población femenina entre 15-64 años) (Estimación modelado OIT) – Cuba

https://datos.bancomundial.org/indicator/SL.TLF.ACTI.FE.ZS?end=2010&locations=

CU&start=1990

Batista, I. y Álvarez, Z. (2001). Breves consideraciones históricas, jurídicas y actuales acerca

del aborto y la regulación menstrual, 15(8), pp. 1-5.

http://scielo.sld.cu/pdf/san/v15n8/san19811.pdf

Domínquez, I. et al. (2020). La Mujer Cubana Logros y Retos Actuales.

https://www.eumed.net/actas/20/desigualdad/4-la-mujer-cubana-logros-y-retos-

actuales.pdf

Esquenazi, A y Rosales, S. (2017). Revista Economía y Desarrollo, 158(2), pp. 169-188.

http://scielo.sld.cu/pdf/eyd/v158n2/eyd12217.pdf

Ley Fundamental de 1959 del Estado de la República de Cuba.

https://archivos.juridicas.unam.mx/www/bjv/libros/6/2525/38.pdf

Organización de las Naciones Unidas. (1995). Cuarta Conferencia Mundial sobre la Mujer, 4

a 15 de septiembre de 1995, Beijing, China.

https://www.un.org/es/conferences/women/beijing1995#:~:text=sobre%20la%20Muje

r-

,La%20Cuarta%20Conferencia%20Mundial%20sobre%20la%20Mujer%20en%20Bei

jing%2C%20China,y%20consolid%C3%B3%20cinco%20decenios%20de
Plan de Acción Nacional de Seguimiento a la Conferencia de Beijing de 1997, de la

República de Cuba.

https://siteal.iiep.unesco.org/sites/default/files/sit_accion_files/11056.pdf

Rosales, C. (2020). Aborto en Cuba: más de medio siglo legal y sin tabúes.

https://latfem.org/aborto-en-cuba-mas-de-medio-siglo-legal-y-sin-tabues/

Suárez, R. (2009). Gobierno Provisional Revolucionario. Ciencia en su PC, 1(1), pp. 40-50.

https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/1813/181321570004.pdf