WOMEN IN CUBA: EDUCATION AND DIRECTED CULTURE CHANGE.

Abstract

This research examines the use of education by the revolutionary government as an agent of directed culture change to effect sexual equality in Cuba. Upon a traditional Latin culture, the Revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959 superimposed a Marxist sexually equalitarian philosophy. In order to examine education as a directed agent of culture change, it was first necessary to determine the revolutionary leadership's intent regarding the place of women in Cuban society as well as the success of the revolutionary leadership in achieving their intent. The policy and practices implemented to achieve success and the resultant consequences are also examined. A paradigmatic model of culture change is utilized in the analysis. This model is applied first to general cultural change by examining the place of women in four social arenas; three of these arenas (socio-political action, schooling and work) exist in the public culture domain. The fourth arena, the family, is in the private culture domain and warranted special consideration. The role of education in Cuba was then examined by means of a model generated from the educational data in the four arenas. From the above procedure, the specific preconditions necessary for education to act as an agent of directed culture change emerged. Education as implemented in post revolutionary Cuba was found to contain these preconditions. The family arena, however, because it is within the private culture domain is therefore relatively inaccessible to the control of the revolutionary leadership. Despite concerted effort since 1959 to achieve sexual equality, women in Cuba have not yet achieved total equality. This limited success of the revolutionary leadership achieving sexual equality may be attributed to its limited access to and control in the family. Significant advances have been made, however, toward achieving equality for women, and education in Cuba has contributed greatly to the degree of success. Education has been effective as an agent of directed culture change in Cuba because the education process was expanded to include a broad range of information transmission mechanisms, such as mass media and legislation, and because Marxism has provided a measure of philosophical consistency within the education process.