Feminism has helped raise
social consciousness of women's oppression

This is an interview with Vilma Espín
by Greek journalist Elisabeth Popagay in 1989.

Scanned June 2007 from the Ocean Press
book Cuban women confront the future

Popagay: What is the history of the Federation of Cuban women?

Espín: The Federation of Cuban Women was founded on August 23, 1960. When the revolution triumphed women forcefully expressed not just their support for the revolutionary laws and measures that benefited the people as a whole, but also showed their willingness to participate in the revolutionary process. Since then the FMC has been a way of channeling the activity and enthusiasm of the masses of women into many tasks requiring their efforts.

The FMC is organized throughout the country in both urban and rural areas, with between 50 and 70 women in its grassroots organizations.

There are now more than 65,000 delegates in the cities, towns and rural areas. A young woman usually chooses to join the Federation at about 14 years of age. Today we have more than 3.2 million members, representing about 81 percent of women over 14 years old.

The leading bodies of the FMC are organized on a municipal and provincial level according to the political and administrative divisions in Cuba. We therefore have 14 Provincial Committees and Secretariats and 169 Municipal Committees and Secretariats.

The national leadership is composed of a National Committee and a Secretariat which carry out or ensure the carrying out of decisions and recommendations of the FMC congresses which are held every five years. The national leadership body also outlines the direction and program of our work in the short, medium and long term in line with the Social and Economic Development Plan in our country.

To sum up, the FMC is a fundamental force in raising the ideological, political and cultural level of women, protecting the full exercise of women's rights, ensuring equal access to opportunities, in all areas and levels of society.

The FMC has won great respect for its work of incorporating women into the workforce, in the development of community health plans, in prevention and social work, in the education of women and the new generations, and in the creation and organization of childcare centers that provide a fundamental service to working women and to the development of children from birth to six years of age. Through the plans and program of the party and the state, the Federation channels the willing support of its members, providing a driving force for the revolution.

Popagay: Do you believe in the international feminist movement?

Espín: Although throughout history, in different epochs, movements have arisen for women's rights, for their integration into productive social labor and into political life, these struggles have certainly gained momentum in the last century. A turning point in the development of the concept of women's equality was the victory of the October Revolution and the creation of the first workers' and peasants' state. It is a truly admirable fact that in the first decade of this century there were a number of outstanding women in the European socialist movement such as Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg, whose Marxist thinking and actions are real examples for revolutionaries of all times.

Lenin also had the strong backing of women with a firm ideological and political foundation—admirable, courageous and worthy women considering the opportunities of those times. Alexandra Kollontai, Inessa Armand, Lenin's sisters Anna and Maria Ulyanov, his companion Nadezhda Krupskaya and many others were pioneers in the struggle for socialism and building a new society.

These historic events gave a powerful impulse to the international struggle for women's rights.

At the end of the Second World War, the conditions and desire existed among the diverse women's organizations of professional women, housewives, workers and intellectuals to unite in the fight for their legitimate rights as citizens, mothers and workers, and to struggle for the peace that had been won at the cost of so many lives and so much suffering. Thus the International Federation of Democratic Women was formed in 1945 to work towards these objectives. The proposal of the IFDW that the United Nations declare a Decade for Women (1975-85) brought about wider recognition of the justice of the demand for women's equality and raised the level of consciousness on these questions. The Decade for Women undoubtedly gave a boost to the work of many different women's organizations, including the feminists, who took the name of the first groups of women demanding female suffrage.

Feminists have given the impulse to the process of raising social consciousness of women's oppression.

In particular, I believe in those feminist groups who tie the solution to the oppression of women, of the liberation of women, to the liberation of all the exploited, the oppressed, the discriminated against, which also means taking into consideration social, political and ideological, as well as economic problems, from the perspective of a class, sex and race analysis.

I am convinced that the problems women face cannot be seen in isolation from other social problems, and that they cannot be analyzed outside of their economic context. Nor should they be considered as side issues within a particular social, historical situation. Thus there are no solutions to women's problems unrelated to their context.

It is ridiculous, for example, to think that in an imperialist country a businesswoman and a woman worker can be equal.

Therefore, I can say that I believe in the feminist groups that propose radical social changes in socio-economic structures, as the undeniable basis of the struggle for equality between the sexes. But naturally in today's world the fight for sexual equality in many places is simultaneous with the struggle for revolutionary change.

There can be no doubt now whether the struggle for equality should precede or be postponed until the taking of power. As revolutionaries we think that all struggles that propagate economic and social changes, that pose ideas of social justice and an end to discrimination and inequality are worthy of recognition and encouragement.

We also think that the most clearsighted members of feminist groups understand the danger of an isolated struggle for partial demands. We see with great satisfaction how every day feminists are joining with greater political skill the particular interests of women, which are a reality, with the interests of other social groups which are oppressed and exploited by the injustice and cruelty of capitalist society.

It is noticeable that in their political and ideological struggles in the capitalist countries the left is deepening their analysis in response to the concrete fact of the awakening of women throughout the world.

Popagay: Do you believe in women's liberation on a world scale?

Espín: Of course I believe in women's liberation on a world scale. By that I mean women's right to attain full equality of opportunities with men; the right to fully develop their potential, to forge a multifaceted, cultured personality, to cultivate their best qualities, to enjoy a full life with respect and human dignity.

For two centuries, equality—that yearning that arose as a hope 200 years ago with the French Revolution—has been only a dream.

Equality between human beings—without regard to sex, race, class, religion—economic and social equality among peoples are goals yet to be realized by the millions of people who are struggling all over this planet.

Our revolution has made great gains in the fields of health, education and social justice in general. It has made important steps along the road to full respect for the equal rights of men and women.

Popagay: How many Cuban women work in difficult jobs?

Espín: I don't exactly understand what you mean by difficult jobs," nor what could be considered "difficult jobs for Cuban women.

Well if you mean leadership or government, this i• thing that is relatively new for women, that developed after the revolutionary triumph. Women's participatio0 these areas is gradually increasing, although we are still not satisfied that we can't do better, especially considering the technical and professional level thousands of women have now reached and the proven qualities they have shown. The figures speak for themselves: in 1987 24.7 percent of the directors in the Central State Administration were women. Women comprise 18.2 percent of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and 12.5 percent of the Political Bureau, the highest leadership bodies between party congresses.

I think that leadership tasks should be considered among the so-called difficult tasks for anyone— for men and women. But despite of being new, women have met these challenges most successfully.

We can also talk about production, where traditionally there was a strict division between those jobs considered suitable for one sex or the other, in line with the accepted social roles of the past. We can now say that women are proving themselves in professions and positions that had never been thought possible before. Since the revolution women have started to enter middle level polytechnical institutes and technical schools to become qualified workers.

In construction, for example, more than 25,000 workers are making important contributions as plasterers, tilers, carpenters and other jobs. There are also construction brigades composed entirely of women that have done excellent work.

Women presently constitute 56.7 percent of medium and top level technicians in Cuba. Every day the participation of women in those professions requiring a high level of technical preparation, such as engineering, mining, sugar and industrial chemistry etc is growing.

In 1986 women made up 31.6 percent of the graduates in the technical sciences, 35.5 percent in agricultural science, and 66.5 percent in medical science.

In general, since the triumph of the revolution, women have had the possibility to choose whatever technical career, or so-called non-traditional jobs such as welders, machinists, builders, artificial inseminators and many other industrial and agricultural jobs.

Popagay: How did the Cuban feminist movement begin?

Espín: Feminism in Cuba reached a certain peak in the 1920s, mainly among intellectuals. In 1924 and 1925 the first and second feminist congresses took place in our country. But their demands, apart from the right to vote for women, were eminently bourgeois and elitist.

Nevertheless, a sizable group of very cultured and advanced women were around the first Marxist-Leninist groups that emerged. They had absorbed and studied the theory of scientific socialism and many of them joined the first Cuban Communist Party founded by Julio Antonio Mella in 1925.

Then in 1939 the third feminist congress was held (this year we are celebrating its 50th anniversary) taking up revolutionary demands for women workers and peasants, demanding the recognition of civil, political and labor rights for women and calling for laws and measures of a social character that were very advanced for those times. That congress also called on all political forces to unite in the struggle against fascism in defense of peace that was threatened by Hitler's invasion of different parts of Europe.

Many women stood out in these feminist struggles, among them intellectuals of the stature of Camila Henriquez Ureña and Mirta Aguirre, as well as Vicentina Antuña Tabío, who is currently the director of UNESCO in Cuba.

The majority of the demands raised by the women in 1939 were not realized until the victory of the revolution in 1959.

Feminism as a movement, although it had never been very strong in Cuba in terms of organization and membership, emerged in Havana among university professors, writers, journalists and some women political leaders. But it declined in the years 1940-50.

Then, many of its members participated in a broader form, not just in the struggle for women's rights, but in the battles of workers and peasants that arose during those years.

Under the Batista dictatorship women joined the struggle against the criminal regime that was sustained by U.S. imperialism. In other words, women fought equal to and alongside men for liberty, justice, sovereignty and real independence, for the right to decide the destiny of our country without the interference of an imperialist master.

Since the revolution, as I explained, women have demanded better organization, and created the FMC with the principal aim of supporting the revolution, by participating in the battle for development and revolutionary advances which can build the economic, legal, political, social, cultural and ideological foundations that can guarantee the full exercise of women's equality, which has been proclaimed by the revolution as one of its principles.

We concur with feminists in the idea that women confront a specific situation in society as a result of the secondary role they have been assigned by capitalism and all preceding class societies. Therefore, specific work among Cuban women is needed to raise their political, cultural and ideological level and to help them understand the role socialism guarantees women as free and equal human beings.

Fidel described the women's movement in our country as a "revolution within a revolution." Such is the magnitude of the changes taking place in the life and thinking of Cuban women.