By Alejandra Garcia on March 8, 2022 from Havana
Sierra Maestras, photo: Bill Hackwell
On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co men’s shirt factory in New York City, U.S. The company’s owner did not expect a major fire to spread through the building after locking the exit door, leaving more than 100 women employees inside.
He thought it would be a night like any other when his weavers, many of them young and immigrant, would be locked in for ten hours straight so that they would have no way to leave their workplace.
With the fire raging through the body of the building and the exit blocked, the women saw no other way out other than to throw themselves from the windows of the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the factory. One hundred and forty-six women died that day, 123 of them between 14 and 48.
It would be unforgivable not to remember this event on the day the world commemorates International Women’s Day. To bring it up on this day is also to remember how far Cuba is from reliving such a history.
The Revolution that started in 1959 by the hand of Fidel, was also in the hands of Vilma, Celia, Haydee, Melba, and other heroines, who managed to place Cuban women at the center of social transformations since its inception. Constitutionally, it long established that women would have the same rights as men.
The revolutionary process also guaranteed that women could divorce, that men who raped them would be prosecuted by law, that they were the ones who could decide about their bodies, guaranteeing legal abortion and medical assistance for it. These are just dreams for many in Latin America and the world.
Today, millions of women took to the streets of the world, demanding the rights that Cuba has won over the years. But we can’t let our achievements blind us because there is still much to be done.
Cuba must stop seeing with normality the calls for food service jobs intended only for young, slim, and good-looking women. Here it must stop those street “compliments” contaminated with sexism and the oft-repeated phrase: “Between husband and wife, no one can get involved” in domestic violence situations. These are some of the challenges facing our society in this cultural process.
It is also necessary to reverse the fact that every woman, once she gets out of work, must also take care of domestic responsibilities, childcare, monthly shopping, and the household economy. These are also signs of gender-based violence, which should be inconceivable in a society like ours.
Cuba just drafted documents that seek to change these realities, like the Family Code. This law will eliminate child marriage, establish the sharing of household duties, and allow every woman – and every person – to love whomever she or he wants. But this and other laws that open new paths for women’s personal and professional fulfillment must enter into Cuban people’s conscience to work. However it is a starting point and a framework to work from in the right direction.
March 8 is a day of struggle, even for Cuba. This Caribbean island has no fires in factories with hundreds of women inside, working to exhaustion. Neither does it face mass protests in favor of legal and safe abortion. However, the struggle continues. Every Cuban must carry this reflection of International Women’s Day inside them to reach true equality for everyone.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English