Cuba: Women’s Complicated Political Participation and Representation

Wylie and Shoker offer an analysis of women’s political participation in Cuba. Their chapter reviews the history of women within the Cuban revolution and government, highlighting the successes and the failures of the government to advance equality. While Cuban women have almost equal representation in parliament, the authors show that these figures are misleading because of the complexities of the political system. Despite the appearance of political and legal equality, Cuban women remain disadvantaged and underrepresented at the highest levels of power. The chapter also examines the role of women in nation building, focusing on the symbiosis between the Federacion de Mujeres Cubanas (FMC) and the goals of the state, revealing that women’s rights still occupy a tense and sometimes contradictory position in Cuban politics.