Women's Right in Cuba

Introduction

Gender inequality is one of the oldest issues and is still debated all over the world. Despite of all the advancements in the world, women are still struggling for their rights. People think that citizens of poor or less developed countries hesitate to empower women and give them their rights, but this is not the case. Even the developed countries have not entirely empowered their women and women do not enjoy their rights. It is assumed that gender equality means that treating women in the same ways as men are treated; however, this is not the case (Stone, 25-39). Gender equality comprises a lot more than treating women the same way as men; it includes giving rights, to women and the liberty to exercise those rights, providing equal work opportunities to women as men, providing them security in all walks of life. In this paper, we would be looking at the rights of women in Cuba, the struggle they went through in order to earn their rights and the present situation there.

Discussion

The Feminist movement in Cuba took off during the 1920's and continued into the 1930's. However, the Cuban Feminist movement took on a much different persona than ones in the United States. In order to grasp the flavor of the feminist movement in Cuba, we first need a little bit of background.

For many women living in eighteenth and nineteenth century Cuba, the idea of having any sort of rights was only a dream. For years women were considered property. They were generally illiterate and left out of official documentation.  In a strange mix between the arranged marriages of medieval Europe and a Jane Austen novel, women were expected to marry up in society. Often times these marriages were arranged by the fathers in order to gain the best "deal" if you will. In many Cuban families it was also done as quickly as possible and in order of age (Toro-Morn et al., 32-58).

Education for women at this time, as with any society was centered on training them to be proper ladies. Women were raised to be modest, reserved home makers.  The Cuban household was based on the system of patria. In other words it was a patriarchal society. However, little by little rights for women were being gained. Up until the 1870 Marriage Law, women had no parental rights over their children. Before hand, if the father died the mother was essentially no longer a parent. With Article 64 of the Marriage Law, women were allowed to legally recognize as parents in the absence or death of the father (Stone, 25-39).

That still wasn't enough though. Women would have to wait another 47 years (that would be 1917) to in order to gain full rights over their own property and to make public and privateproperty contracts. In 1918, women gained the right to divorce their husbands. A few short years later women were allowed to participate in forms of higher education, including going to college. Under Batista's regime, women were finally allowed to ...