Here is a list of some of the efforts that the revolutionaries made beginning in the 1960s to incorporate “housewives” into socialist society: A national child care system, Círculos Infantiles, was founded. The Facultad Obrera Campesina (F.O.C.) was founded to offer women the opportunity to enroll in secondary education. The Cuban Army made it possible for women to enlist and become military doctors or part of the artillery reserve. Prostitutes were integrated into society and given the opportunity to find jobs as taxi drivers, educators or skilled workers. These policies were devised by government as part of the “battle for women’s liberation.”

To this day, however, most Cuban women are unaware of what their individual rights are, and few know how dangerous it is to become aware of them. In Cuba, various forms of harassment, abuse and violence against women persist, and there are systems in place for punishing those who do not put down their heads and surrender to the reality that men are in control of our daily lives.

Throughout my life, I’ve seen how powerless parents are in matters regarding their own children. Parents have no say over how their children should be raised, whether they will be conscripted or sent away to school in rural areas, and what dangers could befall them being so far from home and such a young age. They have no say over their children’s manners, religious teachings and political ideologies. There are only two choices: Run with the herd or be crushed by it.

As a teenager in the 1980s, I was taught in a “scientific communism” class that family was the heart of society. But from what I could see, that was no longer the case; organizations with mass followings like the Young Communist League had taken its place.

Things do not improve after leaving school. The intrusive way in which some men treat us, no matter who is present, is plain harassment. In Cuba it is considered normal for you to be shouted at, bossed around, touched without permission, because women are seen as subordinates.