{"id":273415,"date":"2023-07-31T20:15:26","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T00:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=273415"},"modified":"2023-08-01T17:00:33","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T21:00:33","slug":"racialized-women-the-lost-key-in-the-chest-of-inequalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/migrant-words\/racialized-women-the-lost-key-in-the-chest-of-inequalities\/","title":{"rendered":"Racialized women, the lost key in the chest of inequalities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Femicide monopolizes the discussions on gender-based violence, as it is its extreme and irreversible expression. It is the type of violence that takes (almost) all the spotlight of the media and feminist activism. Among the analyzes on gender inequality, physical violence has also taken center stage with increasing intensity.<\/span><\/p>\n

This emphasis leaves at least two problems unresolved: 1) neglect of structural and veiled inequalities that produce gender-based violence and femicide, and 2) neglect of other social conditions that aggravate the problem of gender-based violence beyond this variable (\u201crace,\u201d territory, sexual orientation, poverty or class status, gender identity, age, disability, etc.).<\/span><\/p>\n

A white woman from Havana, with her own assets and educated, will not have the same social experience as a black woman from a rural area who has not completed her studies and who, devoid of resources, has settled in the capital in search of economic improvements. Or that of a woman from the Guant\u00e1namo countryside, with four or more dependent children, for which she had to drop out of school and dedicate herself to working at home. Or that of a black trans woman, affected by employment discrimination due to her image, and who has an elderly person under her responsibility and care.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Kaloian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They are just examples that illustrate the variety of women we are and who make up Cuban society. However, we are confined to a single category that should \u201cdefine\u201d us (that of being women) but that fails to represent the plurality of inequalities that constitute us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each of the women mentioned can experience situations of gender-based violence within the framework of their interpersonal relationships. But, in addition, each one can be, in a particular way, vulnerable to discrimination and violence committed by institutions, employers and public servants. We are not only talking about explicitly discriminatory or violent actions, but also omissions in the fulfillment of obligations or in the guarantee of rights, subtle violence, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even the way in which we classify violence (economic, physical, sexual, psychological) makes us stop paying attention to problems that, precisely because of structuring this violence, are veiled. In the \u201cviolencemeters,\u201d femicide and other extreme gender-based crimes always occupy the tip of the iceberg, but below that visible peak the violence and discrimination that sustain it are \u201chidden.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That is why talking about structural gender-based violence means analyzing the living conditions of women and the performance \u2014 or not \u2014 of other social actors involved in them from the root; that is, from the base of the iceberg. In these plots, factors such as skin color or \u201crace\u201d affect the intensification of inequality or gender-based violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

White women and racialized women in Cuba<\/b><\/p>\n

A study <\/span>published<\/span><\/a> in 2017 showed that the eastern provinces had the highest gender inequality indices (GII) in Cuba, with an average of 0.328, surpassing the central and western regions with 0.303 and 0.253, respectively. The eastern region of Cuba is the one that concentrates the largest number of Afro-descendant women in the country, therefore, the low index of gender equality verified expresses that the situation is disadvantageous for a majority of Cuban racialized women.<\/span>1<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

In this sense, the calculation of the index shows that, beyond being based exclusively on gender, we are facing a problem conditioned by the variables \u201crace\u201d and territory.<\/span><\/p>\n

The eastern provinces are also the main source locations for internal migrant women, according to the National Migration Survey (ONEI, 2017). Specifically, non-white women are the ones with the greatest mobility within the country (especially black women), with an accentuated displacement towards urban areas in search of economic, labor or training improvements.<\/span><\/p>\n

It means that there is a considerable proportion of Afro-descendant women in Cuba who, due to their situation of mobility, are more vulnerable since they do not have guaranteed basic conditions such as a roof or a decent job.<\/span><\/p>\n

Afro-descendant women in Cuba and the Task of Reorganization (I)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n