CUBA: Crisis and Labour Reform Force Women Back Home

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jul 11 1996 (IPS) - Many women have left the work market in Cuba to take up their traditional role as housewives under pressure from the economic crisis gripping the country since 1990, and government labour reform launched last year.

The Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) warned the government that the majority of the unemployed are young women. At present some seven percent of the economically active Cuban population are unemployed.

The FMC said women made up at least one third of the 500,000 to 700,000 workers who will be displaced by the labour reform.

The authorities aim to put an end to the inefficiency in the State sector, and the agreed measures include closing deficient factories, subsituting big companies for small and middle sized replacements, technological reconversion and employment rationalisation.

The incorporation of women in the workplace increased steadily after the 1959 revolution, and was one of the most important conquests of the feminist movement in the nation, though the process now seems to be reversing.

According to Gustavo Selva, from the Institute of Physical Planning, there has been a distinct reduction in the economic activity of young women and an increase in the number staying at home.

The FMC, which represents all women aged 14 years old and over, recommended that the Women’s Employment commissions be reactivated.

This was one of the main proposals from the meeting “Cuban women: From Beijing to 2000,” which this year, prepared the national programme to bring in strategies suggested at the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing last year.

“We have to fill up all the profitable and useful employment alternatives, with the aim of benefitting the greatest possible number of women, but, above all, those affected by the labour reorganisation undertaken by the nation,” said the FMC.

Despite the problems, women still make up 42.3 percent of all employed workers, said Minister of Science, Technology and Environment, Rosa Elena Simeon.

According to official statistics, women occupy 65 percent of jobs as technicians and 54 percent of jobs in the service sector. They represent 85 percent of administrative personnel, 29 percent of directors, and 19 percent of the workers.

Cuban women fill 70 percent of health and education jobs, make up 44 percent of workers in tourism and 43 percent of the scientific – technical workforce.

The experts believe women will maintain their presence in the most qualified sectors, while the return home will be especially keen in the production sector.

The meeting warned of the “inevitable” emergence of further inequalities in the labour sector as a consequence of the formation of mixed companies with foreign capital and the application of market economy formulas.

The FMC warned in their last meeting, in 1995, that certain social benefits obtained by working women could put them at a disadvantage when looking for a job in a company aiming for efficiency and profitability.

Up until now, Cuban working women have benefitted from long maternity leave and have received understanding when they have arrived late or missed work when their children have been ill.

Meanwhile, specialist sectors assure that labour reform is not the only cause of women returning to their homes or the reduction of women in the workforce.

Research into the impact of the economic crisis on the family warned that “some women voluntarily abandon their jobs because they cannot juggle the roles of mother, worker and housewife, together harmoniously.”

Women’s activity will probably become concentrated in self employment over the next few years, a sector which already includes 30 percent of the 206,000 licensed workers.

The local industry sector could be another option, but this area is dominated by out-working, and the tasks traditionally open to women, like sewing, limit the development possibilities in other areas. More than 72 percent of workers in this sector are women.

The local industries depend on the municipal authorities and produce basic goods for the family, like clothes, shoes, sheets and tablecloths. Early this decade these were one of the main sources of employment, when the government closed several factories because of the lack of raw materials.

“A third of the nation’s (families) are headed by women. The reinsertion of the female population is important, because of the impact it will have on the family,” said the FMC.

Meanwhile, experts from the Centre of Sociological and Psychological Studies stressed that the employment of both members of a couple encourages a more suitable consumption pattern, and a more equitable distribution of responsibilities.

“There is female unemployment and yet female employees are needed,” said Mariana Farias, FMC leader, adding that many people “would rather be out of work than work in certain sectors.”

Jobs currently lacking personnel include nursing, general auxiliary work in the hospitals, teaching assistant in primary schools and activities related to the nutrition programme.