GENDER PERSPECTIVE IN THE PROFESSIONALISATION OF SOCIAL WORK IN CUBA FROM 2000 TO 2020

Abstract

This article aims to reflect about the dilemmas and tensions that characterized the professionalization of social work in Cuba during the period from 2000 to 2020, with a particular focus on the incorporation of a gender perspective in both professional training and practice. Through qualitative research, based on in-depth interviews with professionals in the field, the perceptions and evaluations regarding gender-related training were analyzed, and how these influenced social workers' ways of thinking and intervening. The findings reveal that the absence of a formal degree in Social Work within the Cuban education system led professionals to train in disciplines such as Sociology, Medical Psychology, Sociocultural Studies, Social Communication, and Sociocultural Management, while their work practices centered on typical social work tasks. Despite the notorious feminization of the profession, gender training within the institutions responsible for the professional development of these workers proved to be insufficient. Although the data analyzed corresponds to the period from 2000 to 2020, there is an emphasis on the need for a critical review of the historical process of social work in Cuba, in order to understand better the evolution of this discipline in relation to gender, and the social, political, and academic transformations that took place on the island over two decades.