It is not the first time that two women head the government in this eastern Cuban province. But the fact that they do so now, less than five years after the implementation of the current structure born of the 2019 Constitution, seems to indicate a gradual shift towards female protagonism in this area, as well.
When Yelenis Tornet Menéndez and Juana Yamilka Viñals Suárez took office as governor and deputy governor of Las Tunas, respectively, last December, they concretized a female leadership at the head of bodies that had not yet completed five years of existence. Is the gender balance in the Government of the Balcony of the East changing?
CUBA'S NUMBERS... AND LAS TUNAS?
Statistics indicate that so far this century the ratio between the male and female population of the country is favorably inclined in favor of the latter, something that has also been happening in Las Tunas at least in the most recent five-year period. That means that, although the effective population of the nation and Las Tunas territory continues to decrease, the percentage of women in the total is increasing. If in 2018 they were 49.2 percent of the inhabitants of the land of Vicente García, by the close of 2023 they were already almost half of the residents effectively here (49.9 percent); in the municipalities of Las Tunas and Colombia, they are more than half of its inhabitants.
However, the female presence within the working-age population here fell by half a percentage point between 2021 and 2023. At the same time, more women than men emigrate, since in 2023, 51 percent of those who left to live outside this province were Tunas women.
According to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI in Spanish), after the most recent electoral process at the national level, 44.1 percent of the positions submitted to suffrage are occupied by women. Concerning the previous elective moment (2017-2018), that meant a growth of almost six percentage points in their presence in the country's local governments.
The source, citing the National Occupation Survey, highlights that women held 42 out of every 100 managerial positions at the close of 2023; just four years earlier they were only 36 out of every 100. The proportion of women in managerial positions, but of intermediate or higher rank, is even higher at the statistical close of 2023.
How is Las Tunas doing? On our soil, women account for 41 percent of the district delegates elected in the most recent elections and hold half of all professional positions in municipal governments. Curiously, if we examine each one of the districts, we notice that in the municipalities northern of Las Tunas women prevail among the governmental cadres, but not among the elected delegates. In the southern municipalities, except for Jobabo, the opposite happens because the citizens elected more women to represent them in the assemblies; but there are more men in the governmental bureaucracy. On the other hand, in the capital municipality, the imbalance is more evident: 52 percent of the government cadres are women, but they are only 39 percent among the delegates; in Majibacoa the percentages are distributed as follows: 53 among the civil servants and 40 among the delegates: 53 within the civil service and 40 among the delegates.
It is encouraging to note that among the most important positions in the Tuna assemblies there is always a woman, either in the presidency or vice-presidency; even in the municipalities of Manatí and Majibacoa, they occupy both positions.
WHAT THE STATISTICS DO NOT SAY
However, do these figures mean that everything has been solved in terms of equity? Analysts do not have it all their way because, they warn, the challenge for them remains colossal. Even more so when it comes to assuming responsibilities that involve the fate of a considerable number of their compatriots. If facing the challenge of running the government is hard enough for men in Cuba, considering the changing and often tense conditions in which they must work, for them, it is even harder because patriarchal views of the matter have not disappeared in the collective imagination.
“It is not enough to be empowered, but that power must be effective. Institutions were created by men, and they are structured in such a way that women end up becoming superwomen. This model ends up being naturalized, but it has personal, family, health, and self-care costs for women,” said Farah Saucedo, vice-president of the People's Supreme Court on the occasion of the debate organized by the magazine Temas to analyze this issue.
Saucedo added, “We are still burdened with many stigmas that condition work in institutions, such as, for example, having children, care responsibilities, or age. That is why the development of support institutions such as children's circles or nursing homes is necessary. Often the tasks assigned by society to women represent obstacles to their work performance."
In the same forum Marta Núñez, sociologist, researcher, and professor, wondered if the increase of women in management positions in the country between 2019 and 2023 could also be because men have migrated to private work spaces.
At her side, Lizette Vila, audiovisual producer and director of the Palomas project, highlighted the strength in pursuit of gender equity that is the existence of several essential legal documents to address women's problems: the Law for the Prevention of Gender Violence, the Comprehensive Care Law, the Constitution of the Republic, the Family Code, the Program for the Advancement of Women, among others. “What happens is that many of these laws, she said, do not vibrate because they come from above, they are implemented vertically.”
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Teresa Amarelle Boué, secretary-general of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC in Spanish), described as an example of the advancement of women the fact that Yelenis Tornet Menéndez and Juana Yamilka Viñales Suárez are, in that order, the governor and vice governor of this province.
It is “a sign of female empowerment and the leading role assumed by women in the conduction of the main tasks of the country,” also said the Prime Minister of the Republic, Manuel Marrero Cruz, during the inauguration of both women.
This is -definitely- good news, especially if we take into account that we had to wait more than 30 years to see two women doing the 1-2 in the now-extinct Provincial Assembly of People's Power until Lilian González Rodríguez and Vitalina Álvarez Torres took office in the last decade. Now, let's take note of the message and let's expand that equity in the Government, at home, at work, and any other place where it is still nothing more than a speech.
