Identidades in English No 1, February 2014 | Page 31

Vulnerabilities in female leadership go beyond the statistics. According to preliminary ONEI figures from
May of last year, a follow up seminar after the Fourth
World Conference on Women, in Beijing (2012), revealed that 46% of leaders or managers in civic sector
were women.
The goal set at the Beijing meeting of having more
than 30% women in the economy could not be met in
Cuba in 9 of 17 sectors, among them domestic commerce, agriculture, transportation, construction and
sugar.
A review of legislation found that the Labor Ministry’s Resolution No. 40 (May 24, 1976) established
prohibitions regarding women occupying 300 different kinds of jobs, among them physical labor underground, those that require great physical strength, or
take place more than five meters above the ground or
floor, on scaffolding. Of course, leadership or managerial roles, or medical aid, or social or technical work
is not allowed either.
The justification for this is that certain activities affect
women due to their physical characteristics, yet they
are also discriminated from an intellectual point of
view, given that other prohibited activities deal with
handling equipment and machines, even motorized
transport vehicles.

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I was unable to discover if this norm had been repealed, but the low presence of women in certain sectors proves that it is being applied.
The thwarting of female leadership and representation
are the responsibility not only of laws and the government, but also of the strength with which each woman
claims her space, even at home. The struggle for success begins at home. It is just a matter of not waiting
for others to acknowledge those rights, but rather of
exercising them.
* Note from the Editor: The 1987 Penal Code defines
actions that compromise the right to equality as a
crime and proscribes: “He who discriminates against
another person or promotes or incites discrimination,
either through expressions and a will to offend based
on someone’s sex, race, color or national origin, or impedes in someone’s ability to exercise his or her right
to equality as stated in the Constitution, will incur a
sanction, being deprived of his or her freedom for 6
months to 2 years, or a fine of $200-$500, or both.”
(Article 295)