cuban women :: essays research papers

As research on women has progressed, we have learned that there is no uniform relationship between level of economic development and women's labor force participation. We have also discovered that women have not been and are not as passive and subservient to men as cultural constructs, literature, and discourse convey. Although women in the 19th century worked, like 20th century women in most of the world, they earned less than men. The feminization of poverty is not new. It also proves to be persistent, even when women produce for the global economy and even when men's work evolves around their wives. Women's active role in the economy is not rooted in feminism. Nor is it the result or basis of "liberation." Rather, it typically is grounded in social, economic, and political necessity. By becoming more involved in the public sphere, by becoming more active in civil society and the communities where they live, women throughout Latin America are helping to bring about chang e. For the revolutionaries in Cuba, â€Å"the revolution accomplished many of their goals: capitalism was abolished and socialism was installed, eroding class distinctions and eliminating private property, the working conditions improved, women’s rights improved, labor unions were recognized, the military became more modern and advanced, political order was restored, and the status of the country improved from dependent to independent†(Alexander, 76). For the people of Cuba, therefore, the revolution can be viewed as a success, but for America, the result was a failure. Latin America is one of the poorest and underdeveloped sections of the world. Because of this fact, it is difficult for its nations to compete and thrive in the world market with modern nations as they struggle to industrialize and improve their status. Cuba's progress towards equality for women â€Å"can be summed up in a few eloquent statistics. In 1953 Cuban women made up only 19.2% of the workforce, but by 1999 this figure had increased to an impressive 43.2%. Today 60% of university graduates are women and of these 49% are science graduates. As for medicine, traditionally a bastion of male domination, no less than 74% of the graduates are women†(Berbeo, 24). Women in pre-Revolutionary Cuba had â€Å"achieved a more respectable status vis-à  -vis men than women in any other Latin American country, with the possible exceptions of Argentina and Uruguay†(Alexander, 82). With regard to political rights, Cuban women received the vote in 1934.