Rural women in Holguín play a crucial role in the country’s Food Sovereignty and Nutritional Education Plan and also represent an important source of labor in the agricultural sector.
In the current context of the Cuban economy, the more than 153,000 Holguín women who live in rural areas are an important reserve of productivity and skills in all areas.
In the economically active rural population, they are increasingly linked to the work associated with food systems in different types of production entities, whether state or private.
On the other hand, their contribution is essential in the cultivation of coffee and tobacco, two fundamental lines of agriculture in the province.
Although they are not the majority in rural areas, they are an important potential labor force, largely due to the development of their education levels and training opportunities in recent years.
The updating of the Cuban economic and social model offers rural women, perhaps as never before, greater access to employment and equal participation in agrarian production that contribute to the takeoff of food production, so depressed at present.
However, their role as usufructuaries or landowners is still scarce, a gender gap that diminishes their possibilities of taking on more complex and better paid jobs.
Other obstacles to the empowerment of rural women in Holguin are related to the overload of domestic responsibilities, sexist stereotypes, the harshness of agricultural work and the not always favorable living conditions, now worsened by the reality that surrounds them, a factor that favors their migration to urban areas.
Government policies seek greater autonomy, human development and recognition of women in these areas, where, of course, they also have the decisive support of the FMC, an organization that defends their rights and promotes actions in favor of more equitable gender relations.
The role of rural women in the socioeconomic life of Holguin is still pending to be placed at the level of their needs and capacities.
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