It is a mass organization that develops policies and programs aimed at achieving the full exercise of the equality of women in all spheres and levels of society, among other aspects.

Among the objectives of this organization is to provide systematically its contribution to the training and well-being of the new generations.

Before the founding of the FMC, there were several organizations that grouped the women in favor of the Cuban revolutionary process as a Revolutionary Feminine Unit that brought together a large number of peasant women, the Agrarian Column, the Revolutionary Women's Brigades, the Humanist Women's Groups, the Brotherhood Mothers and others who merged into a new and unique women's organization: the Federation of Cuban Women.

Created in August 1960, the main objective was the incorporation of women into society and employment, as well as the ongoing social and economic change program in the country. Since its establishment, the Federation of Cuban Women has Vilma Espín Guillois as president, who was a member of the Council of State and headed the Commission for Attention to Women, Children and Youth of the National Assembly of People's Power, participating in the formulation of the laws that have to do with women, the discussion and elaboration of the Family Code, approved in 1975. On the death of Vilma Espín in 2007, the leadership of the organization fell to the general secretary of the organization Yolanda Ferrer and in 2012 Teresa Amarelle Boué was elected General Secretary.

It is structured territorially at national, provincial, municipal and base level. Its National Directorate is composed of a National Committee and a Secretariat, responsible for enforcing the agreements adopted at each Congress, the highest governing body held every five years. The National Committee brings together women representative of all social sectors and those who are in decision-making positions in key ministries, the Communist Party of Cuba, trade unions and other social organizations.

The President of the FMC is a member of the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba and heads the Commission of Attention to Women, Children and Youth of the National Assembly of People's Power.

Its coordination work can be seen in the programs implemented jointly with various ministries and government agencies, particularly the Women's Coordination Commissions, which aim to improve women's labor participation and avoid discrimination in recruitment.

The organization created the Women and Family Counseling Houses in which multidisciplinary teams are integrated by different specialists in Psychology, Psychiatry, Pedagogy and social workers with the objective of providing assistance to people who need to know how to lead a family life , thus assuming the family as the main social nucleus where different problems and conflicts related to alcoholism, intra family violence, divorces, among others, affect the behaviors of those who are mainly children and the elderly.

Women's health is addressed with priority in Women's and Family Counseling Houses working on women's awareness, for example, by showing them the importance of cytology testing to prevent uterine cancer, breast self-examination and The measures to protect against the infection of sexually transmitted diseases, taking into account that medical services in Cuba are free. This is an important work in the work of this organization in order to meet the requirements of Cuban women in the current times.

Main actions

To organize and group women around the stated objectives, to study and promote legislation on women and family.  To promote women's rights and ways to sue them. Women and Family Counseling Houses, municipal entity of the FMC that provides advice and information through professionals and affiliates to the organization.

To coordinate with ministries and other agencies, of specific programs for women (education, health, training, etc.). To coordinate actions with non-governmental, national and foreign organizations working with women. To research on the main problems facing women, their interests and opinions. The pubglishing of the Magazine Mujeres, aimed at promoting a non-sexist image of women. Center for Information and Documentation on Women.

Requirements for Incorporation

To join the Federation, as it is commonly known, the only requirements are the voluntary nature of women and be 14 years old. Almost four million affiliates already have this organization. It was founded on the basis of the union of all existing Cuban women's revolutionary organizations.

Actions of women's benefits

In these institutions created by the FMC, there are taught training, computer, hairdressing, cutting and sewing and makeup courses, among others, giving non-professional women and housewives the opportunity to join the social life.

The Program Educate your child is another of the actions of social benefit to which the mass organization directs its attention. It is aimed specifically at the attention given by federates to children who from the age of 2 and up to 5 do not attend the institutions that have the education sector to prepare children for school life for various reasons , mainly because mothers do not work and care for their children.

In this sense, the organization has social workers and social workers who engage in the participation of mothers and the family in different instructive-recreational activities that prepare infants and the family nucleus for a full incorporation into school life.

Present

According to the Report to Plenary of the National Committee of the FMC, on July 24, 2010, the organization groups more than four million Cubans and is structured in 13,539 blocks and 79,828 delegations throughout the Island.

Women in Cuba also make up more than 46 percent of those employed in the civilian state sector; Exceed 65 percent of professionals and technicians, and are 39 percent of the leaders.

After the last elections of the Popular Power, they were almost 40 percent of the delegates, 29.5 percent of the presidents of municipal assemblies. According to June 2010 data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Cuba ranked fourth in the world by the number of women in its Parliament (43.2 percent), above countries with such fame as Norway or Finland.

Among its most important tasks, it coordinates the work of 81 thousand 260 voluntary social workers and 78 thousand 624 health brigadistas who support in the neighborhoods the massive campaigns of vaccination and the prevention against dengue, AH1-N1 Influenza or HIV / AIDS. It also governs the work of the Women and Family Counseling Houses, a space that addresses the problems in the family, including early motherhood, alcoholism or violence. There are 175 of these agencies throughout the country, with 8,448 volunteer collaborators who also share space with the jurists, as a multidisciplinary advisory group, in the newly created Family Courts.

Compartir / Share