On August 23, 1960, in Havana, the Federation of Cuban Women was established, which constitutes one of the significant mass organizations existing in Cuba.

The outstanding revolutionary combatant Vilma Espín was elected as President of the organization.

The FMC, as it is popularly known by its acronym, brings together hundreds of thousands of women and represents their interests and seeks the incorporation and development of women in all tasks of Cuban society.

At the same time, it works fully to develop full gender equality and for women to be trained and hold maximum responsibilities in the political sphere, as well as in the government, ministries and various institutions and also in other mass and social organizations.

Precisely the maximum leader of the Revolution, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, when closing the meeting in which the Federation of Cuban Women emerged on August 23, 1960, pointed out:

"The Revolution has, without a doubt, in the female sector of our population, a very large support. For this reason, from the first moments a series of activities were observed with the active participation of Cuban women.”

And Fidel also stated:

“Our country can feel fortunate in many things, but among them, the first of all, because of the magnificent people it has. Here not only men fight, women fight.

Likewise, Fidel recalled that the names of relevant women are recorded in the country's history and as an example he cited Mariana Grajales, the mother of brave independence fighters about whom José Martí had stated: "What was in that woman, what an epic and mystery there was in that humble woman, what holiness and anointing there was in her mother's womb, what decorum and greatness there was in her simple life, that when it is written about her it is as from the root of the soul, with the softness of a son, and as of endearing affection.”

Before the Federation of Cuban Women was founded, there were several organizations in the country that brought women together, such as the Revolutionary Women's Unit, which brought together a large number of peasant women, the Agrarian Column, the Revolutionary Women's Brigades, the Humanist Women's Groups , Brotherhood of Mothers and others.

The importance of all these organizations being merged into a new and unique one in order to develop a more coherent work for the incorporation and development of women in society was then considered.

Thus, since its inception, the Federation of Cuban Women has carried out policies and programs aimed at achieving the full exercise of equality for women in all spheres and levels of the country.

This women's organization is territorially structured at the national, provincial, municipal and grassroots levels.

Its National Directorate is made up of a Committee and a Secretariat, in charge of enforcing the agreements adopted in each Congress, the highest management body that is held every five years.

The Federation of Cuban Women has worked together with various ministries and government agencies, as well as actively participating in the Women's Employment Coordination Commissions, which aim to improve female labor participation and avoid discrimination in hiring.

The organization created the Women and Family Orientation Houses in which multidisciplinary teams made up of different specialists in Psychology, Psychiatry, Pedagogy and social workers reside with the aim of providing help to people who need to know how to lead family life .

To join the Federation, as it is also commonly known, the only requirements are the woman's volunteering and being 14 years old.

With their active participation in the development and defense of socialist society, and even in the fulfillment of various internationalist missions, Cuban women have lived up to the considerations expressed by leading figures in our history, in this case we quote José Martí and Fidel Castro, by way of example.

On the importance that he attributed to the presence and active work of women in the creative work of the peoples, José Martí stated in the work entitled Of the Cuban ladies, reflected in the Patria newspaper on May 7, 1892:

"... the campaigns of the towns they are only weak, when in them the heart of the woman is not prepared; but when the woman shudders and helps, when the woman, naturally shy and quiet, encourages and applauds, when the cultured and virtuous woman anoints the work with the honey of her affection-the work is invincible.

And Fidel, at the closing ceremony of the second congress of the Federation of Cuban Women, on November 29, 1974, also highlighted:

“The Revolution has in Cuban women today a true army, an impressive political force. And that is why we say that the Revolution is simply invincible. Because when women acquire that level of political culture and revolutionary militancy, it means that the country has taken a very big political leap, that our people have extraordinarily improved, that the march of our country towards the future cannot be stopped. no one."