In today's Cuba, a wind of social transformation is blowing with a woman's face. Women have not only reached historic levels of participation in higher education and the workforce, but have also broken through the glass ceilings that limited their advancement. Today, they hold management positions, lead scientific projects, preside over companies, and make decisions in spheres that for decades were almost exclusively the domain of men.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- This empowerment is neither accidental nor the result of a spontaneous process. It is, to a large extent, the result of a declared political will, among whose institutionalized expressions the Program for the Advancement of Women stands out, a roadmap that articulates and gives coherence to equality policies.

This document recognizes that true equality goes beyond access to opportunities; it requires dismantling entrenched patriarchal structures and eradicating all forms of violence and discrimination.

This is precisely the direction taken by the recent Decree 96 of 2024, a legal instrument that significantly expands women's protection. By establishing that gender-based violence transcends the family sphere and includes harassment and discrimination in the workplace and public spaces, it takes a crucial step forward.

Its practical implementation is equally innovative, as it establishes the obligation to create gender committees in each institution, turning workplaces into the first line of defense and action, as explained by authoritative legal voices in our province.

These committees are not mere bureaucratic formalities. They represent a concrete mechanism for empowerment, so that women workers themselves, together with their colleagues, have a direct channel to report, highlight, and resolve situations of violence.

However, the road is not without challenges. Unconscious biases persist, the double workload of work and domestic duties continues to weigh more heavily on women's shoulders, and macho culture persists in corners of everyday life.

The true success of the National Program for the Advancement of Women and Decree 96 will be measured not only by written laws, but also by their ability to permeate social consciousness, so that no harassment is silenced by fear or indifference, and so that every institutional space is a safe territory of equality.

The empowerment of Cuban women is, today more than ever, a collective project under construction. It is the sum of the individual courage that denounces harassment, the professional who takes on a leadership role, the politician who legislates with a gender perspective, and the co-worker who becomes an ally.

It is a process that, by liberating women, liberates society as a whole, building a more just, prosperous, and genuinely sovereign Cuba.