The Cuba Truth Project
Women's gains
- The Cuban constitution guarantees full equality for women. Women receive equal wages as men for doing the same work, and sexual discrimination is forbidden by law.
- By law, men must share equally in house work with women with whom they live.
- Pregnant women in Cuba are guaranteed maternity leave, with full pay, before and after the birth of their child/ren.
- 49.5% of all Cubans who have graduated college, and 62% of all Cubanns who are currently university students are women.
- Before the Cuban Revolution women made up less than 20% of the workforce
(17% in 1956). One of the largest areas of employment for women was prostitution (mostly with tourists from the U.S.). Today women comprise 44% of the workforce in Cuba.
- 66.4% of all technicians, 87% of all administrators, 53.9% of all service workers, 51% of all doctors, 43% of all scientists and 33.5% of all managers in Cuba are women.
- 35% of the members of Cuban Parliament are Women. 16.1% of the State Council, 18% of the ministers, 22.7% of the Vice-Ministers, 61% of all attorneys, 20% of all officers in the armed forces, 49% of all judges and 47% of all judges in the Supreme Court in Cuba are women.
- The life expectancy of women in Cuba is 79.8 years, several years higher than the average in Latin America.
- Maternal mortality in Cuba is only 33.9 per 100,000 live births. The average for Latin America in 2004 was 94.7.
- Infant mortality in Cuba is 5.8 per 1000 live births (the lowest in Latin America, and lower than that of the U.S.).
- As for all Cubans, access to education and health services, including sexual and reproductive health is universal and free for all Cuban women.
- Abortion, which was legalized in 1965, is free to all Cuban women on demand.
- Childcare is provided in Cuba for all children from 3 months to school age at rates so low, it's basically free.
- Eighty-five percent of Cuban women over the age of 14 are members of a grass roots Non-governmental organization called the "Federation of Cuban Women." To a large extent, the success in implementing the legislation relating to
the rights of women has been achieved thanks to the work of the Federation of
Cuban Women. The Federation plays a major part in the debate and creation of laws that affect Cuban women.
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