“Women and tourism: economic contribution and genre roles. The case of Santiago de Cuba” is the title of the study developed by Ana Alcázar Campos, a researcher of the Institute for Women’s Studies of the Universidad de Granada, focused on the present situation of Cuban women. The anthropologist, who is a member of the group “The others. Feminist perspectives in social research”, directed by Professor Carmen Gregorio Gil, has intended to analyse the contribution of women to the Cuban economy and society and the genre system that predominates in the island and to unravel the economic, political and social complexity present in all the daily actions.
Her research work has been mainly focused on Santiago de Cuba, and considers the economic transformations happened since the nineties and their effects in daily life. Alcázar Campos considers that, despite appearances, the day-to-day of the Cuban population has not improved according to the previsions in the last decade, especially in the case of women, who are in charge of the family.
In the Cuban context, it was thought that the emancipation of women would be the result of their economic independence and the socialization of the housework with the creation of special services to support the house chores and the overcoming of the class system. This is: the superiority of men over women is a consequence of their position in the division of labour. This research work started from the opposite premise: the inequality between and women structures the division of labour, as the main role of men’s salary and women’s responsibility in the housework and children’s education has not been questioned yet .
Fieldwork
The research work is mainly based on ethnographical techniques. They have carried out 50 biographical surveys to women with access to currency (the Cuban convertible peso, which works like dollars inside the country), as well as an observation of different spaces of interaction with tourism in the city of Santiago de Cuba.
Ana Alcázar´s work, which has not been finished yet, will consider the reasons why women gain access to the emergent sectors of Cuban economy. Some of them have started to work in this sector voluntarily whereas others have been selected in improvement processes carried out by the State in different companies. The work will also show some of the assessments of women towards their own work and how they compare it to previous jobs. Lastly, the study will analyse how women combine work and having a family in a country where the cohabitation of several generations under the same roof is quite common.
Cuban women who are working in the tourist sector appreciate the access to a “strong” currency; as regards working directly with tourists, most of them highlighted the idea of “being in touch with the world”. Ana Alcázar highlights the interest of women in being a part of the labour market, as “being linked” to it is essential at a social level. It motivates them to work from an early age.
Reference:
Ana Alcázar Campos. Institute of Women´s Studies of the Universidad de Granada.
Phone numbers. 958 242828. Mobile: 610 802 015
E-mail: anaalca@correo.ugr.es
“Web” of the Group “The others, feminist perspectives in social research” of the Universidad de Granada: http://www.ugr.es/~pfisiem/html/presentacion.htm