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Saturday May 16, 2020
AUTHOR:
Lydia Brown
FACULTY: Mee-Ae Kim
DEPARTMENT: History
Women and Revolutionary Cuba: The FMC and the Limitations of Gender Equality Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro's government implemented a variety of policies aimed at structural and social reconstruction. Because the revolution radically claimed to represent Cuba's marginalized peoples, expectations were high for broad representation in the new government. In light of this, Castro established the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) in the hopes of encouraging more women to participate in the revolutionary government and in the economic sector. The FMC strove to eliminate gender-based discrimination and oppression by increasing women's involvement in the labor force. These efforts resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of jobs for women in the fields of education and health care. However, despite their radical revolutionary beginnings, the FMCs approach to ending gendered-based oppression by expanding economic opportunities contributed to their failure to consider the social dimensions of gender oppression
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