Women's Roles

  The Revolution has successfully incorporated women into industrial, agricultural, and professional occupations. By 1990, half the doctors and most of the dentists in the country were women.

  In 1961, the Revolution began to construct day care centers to free women from constant child care long enough to develop a career or contribute to industrial, agricultural, or intellectual activity. Women's economically productive activity is thought to serve the country as a whole.

  But men still continue to expect women to perform housework and maintain child-rearing responsibilities even if they have full-time careers outside the home and participate in FMC activities. The People's Power attempted to address this recalcitrance by enacting a generous maternity law in 1974 and the "Family Code" in 1975. This code defined domestic chores as the responsibility of both partners and required husbands to do half the housework if their wives worked outside the home. This is ideologically consistent with socialism, but enforcement of the codes has been difficult, as men are reluctant to relinquish their privilege.