Proportion of Women in Management Positions in Cuba Declines

The proportion of women in management positions in Cuba fell to 38.6 percent in 2025, after a sustained upward trend between 2019 and 2024, according to data from the National Occupation Survey (ENO) released by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).

The setback interrupts a five-year period in which the female presence in management positions had grown gradually, going from 36 to 42 women per 100 managerial positions between 2019 and 2023.

Despite that progress, men continue to occupy more than 58 percent of management positions and more than 60 percent of high and intermediate hierarchy posts.

The gap deepens as the level of decision-making rises. Although in the Cuban Parliament women reach 55.7 percent of seats, placing the Island among the first countries in the world with a female majority in its legislative body, only 18.5 percent of ministries are headed by women.

This paradox reveals that numerical representation in legislative bodies does not translate into real decision-making capacity in the centers of power where public policies are defined.

As an example, it is mentioned that Cuban women constitute 72 percent of university graduates of the 2023-2024 academic year and represent 66 percent of the country’s technical and professional workforce, but their presence in decision-making spaces does not proportionally reflect that preparation.

In 2024, women represented only 38.3 percent of the total employed population, compared to 61.8 percent for men.

The overload of unpaid domestic and care work continues to limit their full economic participation, while in sectors such as agriculture and the new forms of non-state management, the female presence in management positions is even smaller.

The decline to 38.6 percent in 2025 reflects the structural barriers that persist in women’s access to higher levels of decision-making.

Specialists warn that this disparity responds to a «glass ceiling» composed of prejudices, exclusionary promotion mechanisms, and an organizational culture that associates leadership with traditionally masculine characteristics.

Although Cuba has met the international goal of surpassing 30 percent of women in management positions, real parity in spaces of power continues to be a pending subject.