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There was a poet named José Marti. Through his speeches and poems, he instilled hope for a better time of social equality. About 6 years before Cuba was actually free, Marti founded a Cuban Revolution Party. The Party was composed of people who believed they should fight for equality and independence in Cuba. However, after writing lots of kids magazines (Golden Age) to poems (Simple Verses) Marti sadly died in 1895.

Although there had been many feminist groups and speakers over the course of the last two decades, women did still not have the right to vote or do a lot of the things men could.

It wasn't until the mid-1930's that women officially were bestowed rights.

Guides.loc.gov, guides.loc.gov/world-of-1898/jose-marti.

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After the Cuban Revolution in 1898, Cuba was still "ruled" by the United States. But in 1902, U.S. finally "allowed" Cuba to rule themselves. Thus, Cuba became a unitary with a semi-presidential system.

As expected, women did not have a lot of rights. They were not allowed to vote, hold office, were considered "toys", or basically anything men were allowed to do.

www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv11cw18s.

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In 1918, the Club Femenino or the Feminine Club of Cuba was founded. This group was found by "middle-class" women striving for equality. They worked together with five other feminists groups lead by Pilar Morlon y Menéndez to establish a female image in government and to provide an inspiration to changes.

www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/club-femenino.

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The Feminine Club of Cuba had made great progress by 1925. They had made so much that the President (President Machado) endorsed them in their suffrage protest. However, later , he went back on his endorsement and outrightly protested against women's rights.

So the women struck back. They created another group of protestors and started a group called Women in Opposition to Machado. This group was focused on securing voting rights for women and kicking Machado out of office. The latter president (San Martín) supported the cause, but the right wasn't completely secured yet.

https://www.globallearning-cuba.com/blog-umlthe-view-from-the-southuml/the-cuban-womens-movement-of-the-1920s

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Finally, after a long, hard-fought protest, Article 38 of the new Constitution gave women in Cuba rights. Women could now finally vote and be recognized as "actual human beings". However, it is now recognized as Article 132. The actual article states,

"All Cubans 16 years of age and over, men and women alike, have the right to vote, except those who:

1. are mentally disabled and have been declared so by a court, or 2. have committed a crime and, because of this, have lost the right to vote''.

https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/cub127553E.pdf

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In 1979, there was a document "going around" called the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, otherwise known as CEDAW. Cuba was the first country to sign this document, and not only sign, but also the second to ratify it.

According to ochchr.org the Convention was used to enforce governments to take 'all the appropriate measures... to ensure the full development and advancement of women'. This was a huge deal back then, and it was a huge leap forward in progress towards equality for women.

admin-dev.geo.org/en/2021/03/24/cuban-women-and-their-role-in-society-between-progress-persistent-inequalities-and-the-rise-of-feminism-1-2/.

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One of the biggest feminist group back in the day was the FMC, which was basically just the same as the Feminine Club of Cuba with just a different name. Today there is about 87.5% of all Cuban women participating in this group today striving to make things even more equal.

They also continue to protect rights that could go away with the wrong president.

Such as abortion rights.

Before the revolution, Cuban women were not allowed to abort and could not even access doctor's that would/could do the abortion process. Now on average there is almost 150,000 abortions a year, meaning there has been around 1,500,00 abortions in the last decade.

Not only do women have abortion rights, but they also have voting, government, job, etc.

Cheers to Cuban Women Rights!!!