Kenya Satchell
April 3, 2009
5:23 P.M.
Cuba has the 3rd highest proportion of female Members of Parliament in the world. Over 70 percent of its health sector workers are women with 64 percent being doctors. Cuba remains one of the most misunderstood and misreported countries on the planet. Established in 1960, the Federation of Cuban Women was the first social organization founded in post-Revolutionary Cuba. Since then, it has enjoyed enormous success in educating women (99.8% are literate) incorporating them in to the work force (which is 46% female) and passing a Family Code that guarantees women equal social and economic rights. Cuban women are content but not yet satisfied with their progress. Though Cuban law sets out equal rights and duties in domestic tasks, traditional attitudes about gender roles often prevail and many women are expected to take full responsibility in household affairs in addition to full time work. Psychological and emotional abuse continue to be problematic in Cuban society, and while statistics and statutes are important, they do not portray the subtleties of female subordination that often have deep historical roots.
I guess I don't really know how to feel about the women in Cuba. True, they are far more well off than most women in other countries, but from the statistics in the article they are doing pretty well for themselves. I understand the concept of being content but not satisfied, but what more can be done that has not already been done? I guess that's probably a question that they ask themselves. Domestic violence will probably never be a thing of the past especially with the insecure men who fell educated women are intimidating. History has set these men up to respond to women this way. No it's not right, but what can be done about it if the women report the men, the men are set free by the police and justice system (whom are probably majority men), and the men go home to do it all over again!
http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/5050-theme/sara-mojtehedzadeh/2009/04/03/cuban-women-content-but-not-satisfied
2 comments:
I agree with you when you say you understand where they are coming from but then again everyone needs to realize that complete equal rights is also a problem we face here in the U.S. I feel that this is an extremely touchy and difficult problem and if there is an answer it should be spreed to the world.
I think that these women still deal with a lot of the stressors that women all over the world face. Just because jobs say they will do this, or that rates show this amount of women are doing this or that, does nto mean that the women are actually becoming more equal and are living better lives.
Post a Comment