CubaPLUS Magazine

Every March 8th for more than a century, International Women's Day has been celebrated -initially International Working Women's Day-, a commemoration approved at the II International Conference of Socialist Women held in Copenhagen in 1910.

It was from the following year that this day was celebrated for the first time in the world as a way of defending the right to gender equality for women in all areas of social and work life.

In Cuba, the first celebration of this day took place on March 8, 1931. But it was only after the revolutionary triumph of 1959 that celebrations in defense of the rights of Cuban women really began. It is important to note that the so-called weaker sex in the largest of the Antilles today plays a fundamental role in the country's society.

Labor laws for women in Cuba are among the most advanced in the world. This is why the island has thousands of highly qualified female doctors, workers, scientists, technicians in all fields, parachutists, builders, engineers, administrators, and even those who occupy positions that were previously reserved only for men, such as baseball umpires, fisherwomen, and airline pilots, among others.

In this regard, it should be mentioned that the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, in its Article 43, regulates equality between men and women in terms of rights and responsibilities in the economic, political, cultural, labor, social, family, and any other field; and that the State guarantees both the same opportunities and possibilities, as well as the integral development of women and their protection from gender violence in any of its manifestations and spaces, and the creation of institutional and legal mechanisms for this.

Likewise, Article 46 of the Constitution itself establishes that all persons have the right to life, physical and moral integrity, and, before the law, receive similar protection, while Article 85 considers domestic violence, in any of its manifestations, as destructive of the persons involved, families and society, and punishable by law.

In essence, women in Cuba have all the necessary guarantees to exist, develop and enjoy a healthy and happy life. I send my warmest congratulations to all Cuban women and women of the world on their day.