Attitudes Towards the Role of Women in Cuban Women Attending a Community College
Authors: Espin Oliva M. , Warner Beth 
Published: August 2007

The study examines both the attitudes towards the role of women in society and the psychological masculinity/femininity manifested by a small group of Cuban-American college women. In Miami, 31 such women completed the Attitudes Towards Women Scale and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire. Overall, the means for this group corresponded with the established American norms. The authors thought that age, number of years in the U.S., mother's educational level, position in family and relative fluency of English would affect oth AWS and PAQ scores. Only the last variable appeared to have an impact, with those women who reported fluency in both English and Spanish obtaining more liberal AWS scores man those who reported being less fluent in English.

Social change and acculturation have long been recognized as determinants of attitudinal changes. The Cuban population in the United States has been subject to those processes during the last twenty years, when the overall population of the United States has been experienc ing a widespread change in attitudes towards the role of women in society. It is tempting to resume that these attitudes and roles have been subject to rapid change, due to the combined pressure of acculturation into American society and the comcomitant changes in attitudes owards the role of women taking place in that society.

Employment rates can be considered as one indicator of change in women's attitudes owards their roles; in the United States, 54% of all women of Cuban origin are working out side the home (Prohias & Casal, 1974). This fact is particularly striking when one considers that, in spite of a constant effort on the part of the Cuban government to incorporate women to the labour force, only 30% of women in Cuba are presently working outside the home Gramma, 1979). Before the revolution, the majority of those women who worked outside the ome in Cuba were from the lower socio-economic groups (Casal, 1975). Since until recently the lower social classes comprised a proportionately small part of the émigré population, working outside the home is a new experience for most Cuban-born women now in the United States.

In a review of the literature on Cubans in the U.S., Casal and Hernandez (1975) mention veral studies related to women's sex-roles and the family. Probably the most comprehensive study about attitudes of Cuban women was conducted by Alvarez and Ehrenkrantz in 1976. sing a semi-structured interview format with 131 subjects in Miami, these researchers found at most Cubans held 'modern' attitudes towards education and work, but these women obscribed to very 'traditional' attitudes towards sexual ideology and behaviour. Attitudes awards the role of wife and mother were described as being in between these two extremes.

The apparent changes observed in Cuban women may have occurred only in the domain behaviour, as a reaction to an overall status loss by Cubans in the U.S., and in a sense, could not correspond to any real modification of traditional attitudes. It appears that Cuban women work because of perceived or real financial need; even when they may work for self fillment, they feel a need to justify their activities as a way of 'helping the family'. however, it seems likely that these behavioural changes will eventually tend to produce changes in attitudes towards the role of women, not only among Cuban women themselves, at also in the Cuban community at large. Whatever changes occur in the role or behaviour of

Cuban ,women in the United States, these changes are taking place in the midst of two pro cesses: The Cubans' acculturation in the U.S., and the women's movement in that country "The acculturation process takes place within the sociocultural environment of a macro culture" (Olmedo, 1979) and in the specific case of Cuban women, the macroculture undergoing major changes at the same time that acculturation is taking place. Thus, what 'American' in relation to women's behaviour may not be clear for the newcomers, and thos behaviours which are less like those prescribed by traditional role expectations for Cuba women will be perceived by people undergoing an acculturation process as 'more American in that they are 'less Cuban'.

The largest concentration of Cubans in the United States is in the city of Miami. According to Rogg (1974), the presence of a large and strong community, such as this, serves to slow the pace of the acculturation process for Cubans, while it also significantly reduces the frequence of adjustment problems. However, since statistics indicate that Cuban women are entering the labour force in unprecedented numbers, it is likely that rapid changes must be occurring in family relations and child rearing practices.

Cuban women must experience some intrapsychic conflict as a consequence of these behaviour changes, while the fact that the Cuban community seems to be accepting women changing roles may help to facilitate this process of change. However, each individual woman must find her own way to interpret and integrate new messages from American mainstrean society concerning women and their roles in society, along with new expectations from within the Cuban community regarding her ability to join the labour force. Each woman must also find ways to adapt her family life to her changing roles, as well.

To date, no research has focused specifically on Cuban women college students. Women enrolled in large colleges or universities are likely to be those most affected by a feminism perspective, simply because they are more likely to have been exposed to this perspective that other groups of women. Cuban women of all ages who are presently attending college are pro bably no exception. Consequently, if any attitude changes are occurring in the Cuban popula tion concerning the role of women, these college women — who have been exposed to feminit ideas and who are already involved in activities outside of the home — are apt to manifest at titudinal changes earlier and more clearly than any others.