{"id":12860,"date":"2019-03-08T14:36:30","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T06:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=12860"},"modified":"2019-03-08T14:43:04","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T06:43:04","slug":"cuban-women-have-made-great-strides-since-revolution-says-envoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=12860","title":{"rendered":"Cuban women have made great strides since revolution, says envoy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Havana born US-Cuban singer Camila Cabello receiving the “Best Video Award” for her “Havana” music video at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2018 in Bilbao, Spain. Photo courtesy of Ian West\/PA Wire\/dpa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Samantha Tan
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KUALA LUMPUR, March 8\u00a0(NNN-BERNAMA) — Women in Cuba played\u00a0a significant role in the development of the\u00a0 Caribbean island nation after the 1959 Cuban Revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was reflected in today\u2019s labour force of Cuba, where about 49 per cent are represented by women compared to about 13 per cent before the Revolution (1953).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuba’s Ambassador to Malaysia Ibete Fernandez Hernandez said in an interview with Bernama International News Service recently that the representation of women in Cuba\u2019s Parliament, at 53.2 per cent, is a remarkable achievement. This ranked Cuba second among the world\u2019s Parliaments in women MPs representation, with Rwanda having the most women in Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Some 50.1 per cent of Cuba’s 11.5 million population are women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cuban Ambassador to Malaysia, Ibete Fernandez Hernandez during a visit to the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama). File photo courtesy of BERNAMA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCuba was also the first country in the world to sign and the second to ratify the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWomen represent 67.2 per cent of professional and technicians in Cuba, 81.9 per cent of the labour force in education sector, 78.5 per cent in the health sector, and 53 per cent of researchers in science and technology, while 64.2 per cent of Cubans who serve in international missions around the world are also women,\u201d she said in the interview, held in conjunction with International Women’s Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8 to recognise women\u2019s achievements and contributions to the social and economic development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fernandez said that one of the most notable women in the Cuban government after the revolution was Vilma Espin, the wife of former president Raul Castro. Espin, who died in June 2007, was the founder of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ambassador said the mechanism for the advancement of women in Cuba was the FMC, which brings together more than four million women, and that Cuban women enjoyed the right to vote since 1934.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FMC is a non-governmental organisation with special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCuban women also enjoy the necessary services for family planning. Recently the maternity and paternity laws were reviewed and its leave was extended until the baby is one year old. It gives the mother, father and grandparents the possibility of sharing the care of the child,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hernandez said despite challenges, women around the world have been able to increase their participation in the economic, social and political fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said a better future will be possible when all human beings could enjoy the rights they are entitled to, especially access to education and health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see the possibility of changes in the legislation that governments can make and in a greater participation of women in the decision making bodies where they can address their own challenges for the advancement of women,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— NNN-BERNAMA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Samantha Tan KUALA LUMPUR, March 8\u00a0(NNN-BERNAMA) — Women in Cuba played\u00a0a significant role in the development of the\u00a0 Caribbean island nation after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. This was reflected in today\u2019s labour force of Cuba, where about 49 per cent are represented by women compared to about 13 per cent before the Revolution (1953). Cuba’s Ambassador to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":12861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,288],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12860"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}