Stoner - From the house to the streets : the Cuban woman’s movement for legal reform, 1898-1940

Stoner, K. Lynn

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From the House to the Streets

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1898-1940

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K. LYNN STONE

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DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Duke University Press All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Stoner, K. Lynn.

From the house to the streets : the Cuban womans movement for legal reform, 1898-1940 / K. Lynn Stoner, p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-8223-1131-3. isbn 0-8223-1149-6 (pbk.)

1. Womens rightsCubaHistory. 2. WomenLegal status, laws, etc.CubaHistory. 3. FeminismCubaHistory. I. Tide. HQ1236.5.C9S76 1991

305-42'o9729idc20 90-48182

CIP

A000005flk7c105

For my parents

Henry H. and Frances P. Stoner

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Tables viii Acknowledgments ix

Preface i

Introduction 9

Breaking the Mold 13

Statecraft and Womens Rights, 1902-1918 34

Feminist Congresses and Organizations 54

A Prosopography of the Feminist Leadership 78

The Feminist Journalists 87

Womens Suffrage and the Question of Democracy 108

Feminism and Social Motherhood 127

Legislating Morality 146

Fields, Factories, and Feminists 167

Blacks, Whites, and Women: The Equal Rights Law 185

Conclusion 193

Appendix 197

Notes 201 Bibliography 221 Index 239

1. Total Population Growth, 17741931 18

2. Proportion of Illegitimacy by Region and Age, 1919 64

3. Proportion of Illegitimacy by Age and Race, 1919 64

4. Comparison of Marital Status of Feminists with that of

White Women in Havana and throughout Cuba, 1943 80

5. Comparison of the Marital Status of Feminist Leaders with

that of All Cuban Women by Age Group, 1943 81

6. Expansion of Literacy for Persons Five Years and Older,

by Gender, 1899-1943 132

7. Literate Population Five Years and Older, by Province and

Gender, 1931 and 1943 132

8. Enrollment at University of Havana, by Race and Gender,

1929-30 137

9. Percentage Increase of Women in the Female Labor Force by

Working Classification, 18991953 169

This book has been ten years in the making, and it is the result of many peoples efforts in both Cuba and the United States. It began as a doctoral dissertation at a time when travel to Cuba was possible under tourist visa but little contact between academic communities existed for facilitating graduate research. Choosing to study Cuban women took an act of faith that only a naive graduate student would have made. Yet Cubans living in this country assured me that a dynamic and effective Cuban womans movement had existed and that there was sufficient historical evidence in the United States to complete the dissertation. Miguel Soils, now retired, was a bibliographer at Indiana Universitys Lily Library who encouraged my study of the womans movement by suggesting starting points and sources. Armando Gonzalez, retired Assistant Chief of the Hispanic Law Division of the Library of Congress, gave coundess hours of advice about the use of legal documents and clarified obscure legal terms. Pablo Calvan, librarian in the Library of Congress microfilm reading room, took an active interest in my sources and enjoyed sharing my rich materials and interpreting cubichismos not found in dictionaries.

In the early stages of research three Cuban feminists were still living, and they graciously agreed to help me write a history of the feminist movement. They knew this book would be a testimony to their work as young women, so they listened to my questions, searched for documents, and answered me honestly. Marfa Gomez Carbonell, the first female house representative and senator in Cuba, met with me once and wrote several letters in response to questions about her perspectives on feminism during the 1920s and 1930s. Ana Moya de Perrera, the superintendent of public schools in Havana province during the 1950s, shared information she had collected for a book on Cuban women she never wrote. Elena Mederos de Gonzalez, a feminist and a social reformer, was my most important guide. She was a woman of great integrity who worked for the benefit of Cuban women, culture, and social justice. In her last years she became my friend. She taught me about Cuba and the womans movement there, but her greatest messages were about life and ultimately about death.

Other Cuban exiles led me to documents that enriched my work. Rosa Abella and Lesbia Varona at the University of Miami opened their resources to me, and they have been waiting too long for the publication of this work. Dr. Asuncion Lavrin, the pioneer of Latin American womens history, has been a loyal colleague and friend. Few areas of research have been opened by a more generous scholar, who never failed to share material, ideas, and encouragement. Her elegance and kindness set a high standard for those of us who share her enthusiasm for womens history.