WUNRN
CUBA - CENTENNIAL OF FEMINIST
MOVEMENT - NEED MORE RIGHTS, LESS VIOLENCE, MORE VISIBILITY
- There
are no purple billboards on city streets, and no public service announcements
on television to mark the date. But many different voices in
“On this
100th anniversary, we need to paint the island purple,” historian Julio César
González Pagés told IPS, referring to the colour that symbolises feminism
around the world.
It was in November of 1912 that
the Partido Popular Feminista (Feminist Popular Party) was born. And in
December the Sufragistas Cubanas (Cuban Suffragists) and the Nacional Feminista
(Feminist National) parties were founded, marking the start of a political
movement that was aimed first and foremost at winning the vote for women. And
other women’s rights associations continued to emerge.
The movement persevered until
winning most of its demands, such as the 1917 parental rights law and the 1918
divorce law, which made
“Ideas about women’s
emancipation had existed in the country since long before,” said González
Pagés, coordinator of the Ibero-American Masculinity
Network. “But they became more visible in 1912, when women came
together in feminist organisations.”
“When we appropriate that
philosophy, we can fight for equality and against gender-based violence,” the
activist said this month during a series of concerts that are being held in
eight provinces as part of a prevention campaign.
Between January and March of
this year, González Pagés and singer Rochy Ameneiro led a tour through 11 Cuban
provinces in an effort to fight violence in music. The tour, which was called
“All Women Against the Current,” included concerts, workshops for art students,
and visits to places that are important in the history of Cuban women.
Many Cuban feminists applauded
the creation in July of a national network for connecting the efforts of people
and institutions for gender equality. The idea came up during a talk sponsored
by the Mirta Aguirre Department of Gender and Communication at the José Martí
International Institute of Journalism.
In separate efforts throughout
the year, various organisations, universities, media outlets, blogs and others
have discussed the feminist movement in
“We have to come to an
agreement and clarify that the history of women is not just the history of
feminists,” she said in an interview with IPS. “We cannot toss out our legacy
to the ‘mute ones,’ our mothers,” she said. For her, many people continue to
confront machismo “quietly, without making any declaration of faith or winning
any battles.”
National oblivion has thicker
layers, which writer Inés María Martiatu tears apart as a way of vindicating
the struggle of black women in Cuba.
“Ignorance about Afro-feminism
in
“When black and poor women are
excluded or minimised, that history is incomplete,” said Martiatu, who is the
co-author, along with Daysi Rubiera, of the compilation Afrocubanas: historia,
pensamientos y prácticas culturales (Afro-Cuban Women: History, Ideas and
Cultural Practices), published in 2011. The conditions they live in and their
demands have been different, she said.
And other voices highlight the
struggle of lesbians for their rights.
To fight against that oblivion,
historian and researcher Raquel Vinat de la Mata has devoted many years of her
life to highlighting the role of women in the 19th century. “It is painful that
we still do not have a book about women’s history,” she lamented, holding an
unpublished book about the biographies of outstanding Cuban women.
“The lack of information about
the Cuban women’s movement and its actions has really hurt us,” she said.
“People tend to think that we were just given all of our rights, and that is
why many women do not do more to defend the ones they have,” said Vinat de la
Mata, who said she has observed “a resurgence of machismo” in society today.
Cuban women earn the same wages
as men, have access to free abortion on demand, and enjoy paid maternity leave
and shared paternity, among other benefits. At the end of 2011, women held 43.3
percent of seats in parliament and 36.7 percent of leadership posts, and made
up 61 percent of university students.
However, women workers face a
double workday, given that they shoulder most domestic work, and they are a
minority in jobs with high economic remuneration and decision-making power. And
inequalities include the persistence of gender-based violence,
although no statistics exist to reflect its magnitude.
After the decline of the first
wave of feminism, which was described as liberal, the struggle slumped until it
reappeared as part of the leftist guerrilla forces that won the 1959
revolution.
Vinat de la Mata recalls those
years “very fondly,” when she was one of the anonymous protagonists of the
“revolution within a revolution.”
She was referring to the
emancipation of women within the socialist transformations that began at the
time. In 1960, various organisations in the country merged to form the
Federation of Cuban Women, the only legal group representing women in
Through the Federation, women
have increased their participation in the public sphere, for example. In 1993,
the Asociación de Mujeres
Comunicadoras (Association of Women in Communication), Magín,
was created, to work for gender awareness in the media. But it never received
the official authorisation it requested, and was shut down in 1996.
“Feminist awareness should not
be based solely on an organisation, but on each one of us,” Vinat de la Mata
said. “It has cost those of us who are feminists today a lot of work to open
the way,” she said, recalling the stigma that was associated with the term
“feminist” until the 1980s, when studies on women and gender emerged in