CUBAN WOMEN: ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES FOR SOCIAL PARTICIPATION

This article discusses some significant improvements in the status of women in Cuban society, and reflects on the persistence of traditional gender patterns, focusing the analysis on the female gender. It refers to some of the main components that allowed a platform for women's social participation to be built from the revolutionary process, while identifying major gaps in gender inequality that hinder the empowerment of Cuban women. The balance of achievements and challenges is analysed according to access to facets of wellbeing, including employment, education and health - areas considered important for assessing women's involvement in Cuban society. In each, the major milestones are identified, and the main challenges that women have to confront in order to achieve their full and equitable social participation are emphasised. The two most prominent traditional features of the social position of Cuban women (and the main barriers to social participation) are: women's continued overburden of domestic and family responsibility, and their limited access to senior management positions. Cuban women develop their participation with such a creative force that they transform themselves in the process of fighting for the permanence of society's achievements and values.