The majority presence of women among the candidates for the 9th Legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP, Parliament) expresses their performance at present in all spheres of Cuba’s social and economic life.
If the proposed candidates are elected on March 26, Cuba will maintain a milestone reached in 2018, since it will once again have the world’s second parliament with the largest number of women: accounting for 55.3 percent of all lawmakers of a total of 470 legislators.
The leading role of Cuban women is also evident in the country’s scientific and technological events, as more than 50 percent of its stockholders are women, as well as in the labor force, hence their parliamentary candidacies include representatives from all walks of society.
Women’s participation due to their merits and skills in Cuba’s Parliament has been increasing: in the 7th Legislature, which was in session from 2008 to 2013, they constituted 43.32 percent of the total number of its deputies, while in the 8th Legislature (2013 to 2018) that figure reached 48.86 percent.
In the 9th Legislature, which will cease its functions in 2023, 53.4 percent of deputies are women.
These figures are the results of the existing policies to guarantee the development of women, expressed in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, and the promotion of initiatives to eliminate gender gaps.
The advances experienced in this matter in the last few decades are considered one of the most successful social phenomena that occurred during the Cuban Revolution.
