“Women constitute a true army at the service of the Revolution… Women are a Revolution within the Revolution… When men fight in a town and women can fight, these towns are invincible, and the women of this town are invincible. " Fidel, your words go beyond walls to make her validity visible, because over the years Cuban women have demonstrated her worth, her attachment to your ideas, her convictions, loyalty and heroism.
From the first years of the Revolution, great importance has been given to the issue of women and to the work directed at the defense of their human rights and the exercise of equality. The Federation of Cuban Women has been the promoter of initiatives, proposals and materialization of laws for the benefit of women and has contributed, even when the concept of gender as a category did not exist, to advance in the emancipation of women and from the beginning of the Revolution, the laws enacted already contained this approach.
Since then, important political, economic and social changes have taken place. The social policies drawn up by the Revolution established the bases for achieving female social participation. Women joined the defense of the Revolution in the militias, in literacy training, in voluntary work and in multiple tasks called for by political and mass organizations. At present we see her playing various roles: manual road workers, engineers, bricklayers, running companies, in short, her versatility far exceeds the expectations of any person regardless of gender; but they never lose their tenderness or femininity. Imías is an example of everything that women can do in the workplace, ranging from the tasks assumed in the Local Bodies of People's Power to working in the groove. To them, to all those women who dedicate themselves with passion to each of the missions entrusted, our recognition comes. We are immensely proud of our women, of those who went to the bush, of those who gave birth to children like Maceo (Mariana Grajales), of those who today represent us in different positions and positions, of those who take care of the children and other members of the family at home, of those who teach, love, conquer and found. Her discipline, sensitivity and responsiveness to this pandemic and to the obstacles imposed by nature and life, distinguish her. Women of honey and steel, promoters of change that encourage women and men to participate, claim their rights, strengthen communities and protect the planet. Their participation is essential, but they still have a long way to go. In the magazine The Golden Age, Martí wrote: “The woman is not like us, but like a flower, and you have to treat her like that, with great care and affection, because if she is treated badly, she dies soon, just like flowers". And she came to lament in Buenos Aires, in May 1883, "what will become of men, the day when they cannot rest their heads on a woman's hot bosom?" 138 years later I consider this to be the perfect chemistry, as there is no complete work of a man without a woman's smile. Congratulations.