Cuban Revolution Dbq Essay

Women have faced patriarchy and discrimination for centuries. In Cuba, women lives generally meant working for the male figure in the family. That is, until 1959. The Cuban Revolution encouraged equality, meaning equal rights and equal opportunities for everyone, including women. However, obtaining equality is not an easy struggle. In the period from 1959 to 1990, the Cuban Revolution drastically affected women’s lives and gender relations in Cuba due to the improvement in educational opportunities, the increase in economic involvement, and the rise of gender equality in politics and daily life. Nevertheless, the Cuban Revolution also caused social and economic problems for women.

The Cuban Revolution created numerous opportunities for women

Women, both mothers and daughters, were under male authority for as long as they lived, due to patriarchal power imposed by the government and society (Doc #1). Ofelia, a Cuban woman, socialist and feminist, resentfully reflected on the way women were treated before 1959. She is against patriarchy and the low status that women have had, even under the United States occupiers’ rule. She believes this because she’s seen the way women were treated before the Cuban Revolution, and the changes that the revolution brought, regarding patriarchal authority in her daily life, specifically her family. The government under Castro forced families to complete equal participation in domestic tasks, which changed women lives greatly. Patriarchy was gradually being abolished, as men usually did the same tasks as women did in family life and liberated women from household work. Therefore, women had more voice in their family affairs at home. In politics, matters were similar, as the rates of female participation in the Communist Party from 1975 to 1986 greatly increased (Doc #9). Women were more integrated in politics after the Cuban Revolution. This is because the government and society were giving them the opportunities for doing so. From the beginning of the revolution, women

According to a male Cuban revolutionary, he and most of the older generation were against women’s liberation because they expected a woman to do household work (Doc #3). He was strongly against women’s liberation because he was used to patriarchy, to women serving men and, thus, thought that a woman “owes herself to me [him] and the children”. There was most likely a strong opposition from men regarding women’s liberation that made equality harder to achieve. This opposition slowed down the country’s progress on feminism and women right’s because they still treated women as servants born to do housework. Because of a lack of participation from men, women still had the responsibility of doing household work plus the responsibility to work, resulting in an unfair double work shift (doc #10). Due to men’s strong opposition, women were prompted to work at home and at regular jobs, creating a gigantic burden for women. This was a clear new problem that the Cuban Revolution caused on women’s lives. In addition, pregnant women faced several problems, such as being forced to quit their field of study and having to take care of a baby without enough resources (Doc#6). Fidel Castro’s own daughter, Alina Fernández, stated her troubles about her maternity with contempt. In order to show women’s problems under