Gender Gaps Increase in Rural Areas of Cuba
HAVANA TIMES – Machismo and the gender inequalities inherent in Cuba’s patriarchal society put women in rural communities at greater vulnerability, largely due to the worse socio-economic conditions in these areas compared to urban spaces.
The most common manifestations of violence in Cuba are offenses, but also the roles of servitude that have been assigned to women in the domestic sphere, said Lenin Maso, 54, coordinator of the SoLuna project, associated with the University of Matanzas, which addresses gender, community, school, and racial violence through education.
“In rural areas, stereotypes are more rigid and deeply ingrained in the culture. The family is more traditional than in cities, and even though women work in agriculture, they are not considered providers,” he added.
Yaniela Vega, a psychologist and gender activist from Guantanamo, the easternmost province of the island, commented to IPS that “it may be a stigma to say that masculinity in the countryside is essentially harsh and violent, while submission and weakness would represent the rural woman prototype.”
However, she insisted that gender violence in rural contexts differs from that in urban environments through more qualitative than quantitative forms.
Still, the Cuba Gender Equality Observatory quantified that, by the end of 2023, 34.1% of women over 15 years old living in rural areas were solely occupied with household chores, while the figure for men was 0.9%. This gap has been decreasing compared to previous years, as in 2020 it was 45.1% and 0.5%, respectively.
The difference with urban areas is still noticeable, where in 2023, the percentage of women was 24.2% and men 0.7%.
Such inequality stems not only from a higher or lower degree of ingrained machismo but also from infrastructural conditions that leave rural women more vulnerable.
Economic Roots of Inequality
According to the latest yearbook from the National Office of Statistics and Information, of the 2,468,649 million people living in rural areas in 2023—out of a total population of about 10 million—46.7% were women. In urban areas, 51.8% were women.
The trend toward feminization of urban spaces and masculinization of rural areas is evident in each of the country’s provinces; several studies agree that the phenomenon occurs, in part, due to increased internal migration of women.
Vega herself is a return migrant, who lived in Havana and then returned to her native province in eastern Cuba.
She led the project “Raíces que Conectan (Roots that connect): Identity, Empowerment, and Social Networks of Migrant Women” at the end of 2024, an initiative that created support networks to consolidate a community of women from the east of the island based in Havana, based on feminist, intercultural, and sustainable principles.
According to the psychologist, the economic and infrastructural disadvantages and living conditions associated with rural environments end up translating into fewer opportunities for women to reach their full potential.
“Women in rural communities face several challenges: difficulties accessing education and employment due to distance or lack of options; access to financing and production means, as they are less likely to own technologies or productive resources; or reach leadership positions…” noted Vega.
She also mentioned other obstacles like wage gaps and labor segregation, where women perform lower-paying jobs, as well as “the imbalance in the use of time, with a heavier domestic load and fewer options for leisure, enjoyment, and recreation.”
In 2023, rural women aged 15 to 74 dedicated 22.8% of their daily time to unpaid household work. In urban areas, women spent 20.8% of their time on the same tasks.
Another challenge, according to Vega, is for rural women to build alternative visions of their own reality, as “logics of oppression” have also emerged from a “hegemonic feminism”:
“There is a popular tendency to homogenize the vision of what an empowered, autonomous woman with balanced self-esteem or a sense of personal fulfillment is, a view often shaped from an urban-centric perspective, which ends up excluding us, rural women,” she stated.
Women in Agriculture
In 1992, Virginia Creach emigrated to Havana from a rural environment in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba. In 2001, she received 1.57 hectares of land in usufruct from the government in the municipality of Mariano, west of Havana, which she named Finca La Mambisa.
Today, at 54 years old, she grows vegetables and fruits primarily using her own efforts and agroecological techniques.
“Many people have asked me if I’m not embarrassed to be seen working in agriculture, dressed the way I dress. And I tell them, ‘Not at all, I come from a farming family; the land provides everything,'” Creach told IPS.
Various studies show a decrease in the number of women working in agriculture.
According to a report by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, published in October 2024, women in Cuba’s agricultural sector represent 25% of the total workforce. Of these, 13% work in productive tasks. In addition, women make up 44% of the members of agricultural cooperatives.
Over 17,000 women have been granted usufruct of land, and around 10,900 were landowners by the end of 2018.
These figures represent about 16% and 32% of the total usufructs granted and owners, respectively, as reported by the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s News Service (Semlac) in October 2023.
Among the reasons why women do not join agricultural labor are poor working conditions, low wages, and the overload of household or unpaid care responsibilities, said Marcos Naranjo, national director of the “They Also Produce” project.
The initiative aims to design more sustainable, resilient, and equitable food systems in the western province of Matanzas while strengthening women’s leadership in the process.
“There is also the risk that government and agricultural authorities will not prioritize sustainability and gender equity approaches in the development of local food systems due to a lack of awareness and their priorities,” he added.
On the other hand, Naranjo emphasized that many of the traditions, customs, and social norms governing rural spaces are rooted in machismo in Cuba and limit women’s ability to participate in agricultural work on equal terms with men.
“We, women, work much harder than men, especially when it comes to a small farmer who has to attend to household chores, children, and, sometimes, grandchildren and grandparents,” argued Creach.
Women are often assigned tasks such as weeding, cooking, and raising animals in yards and pens—work that is neither accounted for nor paid—while the belief that men are better suited for leadership positions remains.
“In many families, land and other property are inherited by men. Furthermore, the husbands’ opinions are highly valued, making it harder for women to make decisions about land use and their life projects,” Naranjo said.
In his view, “questioning that ideal (machismo) is a challenge to promote women’s participation and leadership in the farm sector.”
First published in Spanish by IPS and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.