| Cuba |
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| Between the decades of the 1960s and 1980s, Cuba and the United States had a hostile relationship. In the same years though, they were they two countries in the Americas most concerned with women's rights. |
| Like the U.S.A.: |
| SInce the beginning of the womens movements in both countries, they have had the same goals: equal education, fairer recognition of women's work, more job opportunities, and equity in legal rights. |
| Cuba has developed the strength in the women's movements not so much from the grass roots, but from the top sown. The Federation of Cuban Women was created by Castro in 1959 as he put his brother's wife in charge of it. She was a successful chemical engineer before organizing (below Castro) the federation. She did not even understand why the needed a women's federation as she had "never been discriminated against, [she] never suffered, [she] never had any difficulty." |
| As she was a successful and well respected professional, she never encountered the problems that most women in Cuba encountered. |
| Cuba in itself: |
| Since the beginning of the women's movement in Cuba, Fidel Castro has been the most influential person in the movements, although he is a man. In 1974 he stated that more women leaders were needed in political and governmental positions because there needed to be more equality all around to fit into the ideal communist community. |
| In 1985, one half of the medical students in the universities were women; literacy rates for women had increased, and government child care centers had been opened to aid working mothers. |
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| As you can see from this photo, family in Cuba is still very women oriented. The women take care of the young at home. |
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