Revolution Within the Revolution: Women and Gender Politics in Cuba, 1952 to 1962

Michelle Chase is an assistant professor of history at Pace University. She says Cuba was a site for first wave feminism in the 1920s and 1930s. Women got suffrage earlier than most places in Latin America, she says. They also had rights to custody over children, alimony payment, paid maternity leave,. A lot of those feminist demands were enshrined in the 1940 constitution; they weren't recognized in practice.