CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Cuban Women: An Essential Part of the Cuban Revolution.

CUBA, 23 August 2011.- On August 23, 1960 during the keynote at the creation of the Federation of Cuban Women, former President Fidel Castro called women an army at the service of the Revolution. He said that when women and men fought together, the country became invincible. Half a century later, these words are very much present in Cuba's life.

Women have become vital in every aspect of life in Cuba. Recent reports showed that women represent 66 percent of the technical and professional workforce in the country. They add up 47.3 percent of the State workforce and 40.2 percent of the management positions are held by women. Women also occupy 58.2 percent of the management positions in health care. The country's administration also has a strong female presence as well: 41.7 percent of the members of the Communist Party's Central Committee are women.

Cuban women have been present in every turning point of the Revolution: they were vital in the realization of the Literacy Campaign in 1961, in which a million people in Cuba learned to read and write and declared Cuba an Illiteracy-Free Country. They are the major force behind Cuba's high levels of literacy and low birth mortality rate in the country, 4.5 percent, a figure that has been attained despite the harsh economic, commercial and financial blockade declared by the United States to Cuba more than 50 years ago.

Women are also a leading force in the current update process of the social and economic model of the Cuban Revolution.

The FMC was one of the major achievements of the Cuban Revolution for making women an active part within the construction of the new, socialist society. But women have outlived the organization's original objective. Today, it is not possible to imagine the Revolution without the steady and decisive work of women.

As Fidel Castro said at the First Congress of the FMC, women must have the right to develop their capacities for the benefit of society, but; more importantly, they must have the possibility to fully develop their capacities. (Cubaminrex-Granma)

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