2011 Ap World History Dbq Essay

Introduction: It is not uncommon to read in a history text book during anytime and find a note, a sentence, and a paragraph, of how somewhere women were not equal to men. This continues even today as in some areas women are still treated with inferiority, but many countries also have changed already, such as Cuba. In the years of 1959 to 1990, women and even some men, prompted for gender equality, for women to be able to do the things men could do without being judged. This time period marks a change in Cuban society, from an ignorant society of their world before 1959 into a more enlightened place, through the efforts of many people against what others were telling them was wrong, what society had told was wrong, but what they knew was truly
right.
Paragraph 1: Those who tried to stop the change, the problems the “revolution” faced
• Documents to use: 1, 3, additional document
• Document 1: talks about the fathers or husbands power over the family, patria potestad (patriarchal power), and how before 1959, women had to live with this, live with not being free
• Document 3: The perspective of a Cuban husband who say as the revolution gave women more rights and jobs and that this isn’t right, that a women owes herself to her husband and children
• Additional document: an article done by a less patriarchal country about the treatment of Cuban women during this time period
Paragraph 2: Women fighting for equality, the time of change
• Documents to use: 4, 5, 6
• Document 4: from the perspective of a Cuban women 1970, saying how before the revolution the only job a woman could really get was as a prostitute, but because of the revolution they now have much more opportunities and chances for education and jobs outside the house
• Document 5: Fidel Castro, talks about how women are discriminated, how the revolution is fighting to stop this, and how it will take time
• Document 6: talks from the perspective of a woman during 1978, how she was not given water, or a mattress for her baby or anything she needed, (me) things needed to improve for people like this
Paragraph 3: Progress Revealed, Cuba starts to improve
• Documents to use: 2, 7, 8,
10
• Document 2: talks about how in 1960 many women traveled to the country side, to schools, to learn basic skills , and came back changed people, stronger, healthier and having more skills
• Document 7: 1980, Family code started in Cuba guaranteeing equal rights for women in the home, and how the authors daughters are now students
• Document 8: it’s a graph showing illiteracy and economic activity of men vs. women in 1953 and 1982, illiteracy dropped for both in this time, and women’s economic participation also increased across this time
• Document 10: talks about how the labor force percentage of women rose from 25% in 1974 to 39% in 1989 (added point but may not be appropriate for this paragraph, mentions that women are still not truly equal in the homes, all the responsibility is still left to them)
Concession:
• It is valid to argue might nit of brought much change to women, as shown in document 6, this 1 women was stopped at every corner for many basic rights as this was a bit into the supposed time of reform. Though this can be argued too, as rights did not improve for all women at the same time, it was women like this that helped keep the struggle going, showing that change still needed to occur and that the revolution had the right idea
Conclusion: The time period of 1959 to 1990 great change occurred in the patriarchal world of Cuba, but only through the efforts of strong women, but mainly, because of the influence of the Cuban revolution.