Maternalism and Women’s Health in Revolutionary Cuba: Medical Education, Family Planning, and Feminist Strategy Soo Hyun Kim Soo Hyun Kim is an undergraduate student at Stanford University who hopes to engage in crosscultural dialogue on science and technology's far-reaching impact on society. Soo Hyun plans on continuing her studies in the biological and chemical sciences with the desire to enter the healthcare field in the future. Abstract From the late 1950s to the early 1960s, women revolutionaries in Cuban anti-Batista movement adopted the political strategy of maternalism, which allowed for women to organize as grieving mothers, wives, and daughters. Regardless of their extensive contributions, however, women revolutionaries continued to be regarded as “auxiliary” and were often sexually policed by their families and revolutionary leaders. In this way, notions of women’s political activity and sexuality were characteristically intertwined. In particular, as such maternalist rhetoric emphasized the role of women as revolutionary reproductive systems, more women and society in general were prompted to become involved in women’s and maternal health. Women’s participation in healthcare was unique in their efforts to dispel traditional gender limitations and overcome the taboo nature of female sexuality by pushing for sex education, especially by promoting education on family planning. In particular, scholars often claim that healthcare and education reform of the Federación de Mujeres Cubanas (FMC) was not as simple and direct as a passive, top-down propagation model without taking into account the indirect impacts of women’s contributions to the revolution. Specifically, this paper asserts that the revolutionary ties that women had developed through their insurgency contributions and the corresponding shifts in perception of women’s sexuality and health had prompted the concrete policy changes regarding women’s healthcare. This paper examines the role of motherhood in women’s experiences in underground anti-Batista movements, which later influenced fundamental changes in women’s participation and perception of health and sexuality within a society that has been historically patriarchal and strongly values machismo.
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