"There can be no advancement of society without advancement for women. It is a fact and we have to make each one of the members of our society more and more aware of it", said Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, Head of the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), during the First Workshop for the implementation of the National Program for the Advancement of Women (PAMUJERES), held on Tuesday, International Women's Day.

 According to a report by Radio Rebelde, Polanco Fuentes expressed his gratitude and awareness of the achievements made in the empowerment of women, and extended his congratulations to women on their day.

In another moment, the political official highlighted the work carried out by the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) to eliminate any vestige of discrimination in the country.

In that sense he emphasized: "this is a problem of our whole society and we have to captivate, sensitize men so that they also become champions of this idea, of this concept and of these transformations that are indispensable".

At the meeting, held at the headquarters of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba, the FMC General Secretary, Teresa Amarelle Boué, analyzed the main advances of the program such as the integral strategy for the prevention and confrontation of gender violence, novel changes in the maternity law for state and private sector workers, the creation of children's houses in work centers in the provinces, the purchase of houses for single mothers with three children and more, among other aspects presented.

According to this media, one year after its implementation, the National Program for the Advancement of Women promotes the advancement of Cuban women and the equality of rights, opportunities and possibilities, as well as deepens in the objective and subjective factors that as expressions of discrimination persist in Cuban society and hinder greater economic, political, social and family results in order to eliminate them.

For her part, Maribel Gutiérrez, resident representative of the United Nations Development Program UNDP-CUBA recognized the work carried out by the FMC in these two years of pandemic and without setbacks.

Gutiérrez reiterated that "Cuba has been a reference in the development of women in the region, for Latin America and the Caribbean, and has also been a recognition of the advances not only in the normative aspect, since it is possible to have laws and norms but it can be difficult to implement them".

"We are talking about implementation, action, action plans, which I believe Cuba has put into practice all the time for the development of women. We are talking about political representation, decision-making processes, economic development and economic empowerment," she said.

The National Program for the Advancement of Women is the Cuban government's agenda to promote the progress of women on the island. According to Radio Rebelde, it promotes more comprehensive and effective actions for the prevention and elimination of discrimination and violence against women through an Action Plan, measures and strategic objectives focused on these development priorities.