Guantanamo works in favor of the empowerment of rural women as a key sector to guarantee sustainable development, says Oscar Mendoza Pérez, deputy director of employment in the Cuban easternmost province, where some 743 women were favored this year, representing the 68 % in the territory.
The director stresses that the working age female population in the mountains exceeds 117 thousand 800 people, of which just over 76 thousand 400 are employed. It shows the economic autonomy that this segment gains even when there are still prejudices and stereotypes that stop the progress of women to work in farm labor.
He also highlights the opportunity to take advantage of self-employed work and in that sense, of the total number of women who are involved in it, 27, 8 percent reside in rural areas, especially in Baracoa, El Salvador and Maisí, municipalities where the largest female population of the province is concentrated.
Currently working together with other organizations to raise the professional level of young women in mountainous areas, many of them today make up the brigades of the Cuban Women Federation and the Association of Small Farmers, structures from which they boost food production.
Oscar Mendoza Pérez, deputy director of employment in Guantanamo says that it is a priority to find sources of employment for single mothers, those with more than three children or some with disabilities, graduates of special schools and the disabled capable for working.
The employment policy favors those who live in the Guantanamo neighborhood, especially women, who constitute an important reserve of productivity within the process of updating the Cuban socioeconomic model.