Women in the Revolution

Cuban Gender Roles

Concurrent Revolutions in Cuba

Describe your understanding of gender norms and ideals in pre-revolutionary Cuba -- for both men and women. In what ways did the Cuban Revolution and the revolutionary government of Fidel Castro include women and/or women's concerns in the revolution? What were the strengths and weaknesses of these measures? Be sure to discuss "feminine, not feminist" ideas: Did they support or undermine women's equality? Why or why not? Use specific examples to support your answers.

The Cuban Revolution was a tumultuous time in which many fundamental shifts occurred in the society. The primary shift occurred due to the use of force to overthrow a dictatorship in order to implement a government with a communist despite. Despite many objections to the use of force to obtain these changes, or possibly to the communist ideals in general, there were many egalitarian ideals upon which the movement was founded upon. These egalitarian also applied to gender issues and women stage a congruent revolution along with the guerillas and many actually participated in active role in carrying out the coup. After Castro himself advocated for women's involvement, the women's platoon of the Rebel Army which formed showed courage in some situations that men couldn't parallel. Women joined the revolution and also had their own feminine revolution in social norms once the society was reestablished. The role of women in the society shifted markedly after the revolution, and although not perfect, broke down many cultural provisions of the patriarchal forms that had previously existed in Cuba.

Analysis

Beginning in the 1950s, under the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista (1952-1959), Cuba had a thriving financial situation compared to many Latin American countries at the time. However, at the same time the prosperity co-existed with extreme income inequalities as well as inequalities of opportunity for its citizens and social mobility. These great disparities developed between black and white Cubans, between rural and city dwellers and, importantly for our consideration, between women and men. The society was organized under an authoritarian regime and many of these ideals pervaded the society on many levels.

The gender roles in Cuban before the Cuban Revolution were heavily patriarchal. General acceptance that working women should be restricted to low-status and low paid work was also important in reinforcing the idea that women primarily belonged in "the home" and not as equal members of the society that were free to choose their own domain. Capitalist dominance of the media and other cultural products, capitalist laws and the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Cuba all helped reinforce these ideas. The Cuban revolutionaries recognized that the impact of capitalism's needs and the sexist ideas it promoted on women's lives was so far-reaching and oppressive that fundamental changes were needed (Brown, 2011).

Before the revolution, a far-reaching approach to the issue of women's oppression was already becoming evident in the media by the end of the 1960s and films about ways in which women's political involvement had changed historically, specific references to the continuation of inequality in Cuban society in speeches and in the press. The 'double shift' was raised as a theoretical issue in the widely-read Latin American Periodical Casa de las Americas which is published in Cuba (Murray, 1979). This was also in congruence with many of the idealistic values included in the ideology that drove the revolution and led to the coup and many women seized the opportunity to place their values on the stage.

Before the revolution, prospects were bleak for many Cuban women to improve their lives but the revolution marked a new opportunity. The brutality of the Batista regime was one of the primary reasons that many women agreed to join the revolutionary struggle, some with more ambition than others. Some of the women served roles in non-combatant underground work and others worked to care for the male soldiers.

However, some decided that this did not satisfy many of the women aspirations and they demanded equality in the armed struggle, against the opposition of many of the men. Fidel Castro spent one seven-hour meeting persuading leading opponents that women had the discipline (in fact, more of it) - and also the right - to fulfil this role; the women's platoon of the Rebel Army became known for its discipline and courage, sometimes leading ahead where men feared to go. Thus it was early in the revolution that many men were forced to change their opinion of women's capabilities (Brown, 2011).

Today, although data vary year to year, Save the Children consistently rates Cuba first among developing countries (ahead of democratic nations such as South Korea, Mexico, and South Africa) for the well-being of mothers and children and the Overseas Development Institute, a leading British think tank on development and humanitarian issues, rates Cuba in the top twenty nations for its progress relative to the Millennium Development Goals; the World Economic Forum ranks Cuba 20th among 135 countries on the health, literacy, economic status, and political participation of women, outperforming virtually every country in Latin America (CDA, 2013). Much of these achievements could be directly correlated with the women leaders that participated in the revolution and helped to rebuild the Cuban society.

Although most Cubans no longer hold the pre-revolutionary attitude that women should stay at home and live by the patriarchal structures that existed before the revolution, the assumption that women should assume most responsibility for domestic tasks is enduring in many parts of the society and a large percentage of Cubans have been reluctant to elect women to some of the national leadership bodies because they think their domestic responsibilities would impede their leadership activity (Brown, 2011). For such reasons the establishment of a 1975 Family Code, which set into law equal participation in domestic tasks was enacted; another response has been the "best candidate" media campaign run in the media and was aimed at urging voters not to allow gender roles to prevent them from voting for the best candidate (Brown, 2011). However, Cuban feminist leaders recognize the importance of continuing this work to change ingrained attitudes.