Gender Roles in Cuba: Leaving the Kitchen Isn't Enough

The scene: a family doctor-and-nurse offi ce. After the usual well-baby visit for the eight-month-old, the physician poses a question to the young mother that sounds more like a statement: "I sup-pose you won't be going back to work, right? You'll be staying home to take care of your little girl." The mother, surprised, responds with a laugh: "Of course not. As soon as she's a year old and walking, she'll be going to day care and I'll be going back to work." The doctor, a look of concern crossing her brow, responds: "But once they start in day care, they catch all kinds of things. They're much safer at home." The mother, now unsmiling, says: "Well, she'll just have to catch anti-bodies." Attempting a joke, the specialist sighs: "Ah, my friend...and you've been such a good mother!" Silence. How do you re-spond to this? Two truths are implicit in the commentary, thought the young mother. The fi rst, that the doctor wasn't sure at the outset that she was a good mother. And the other, that once she decides to send her daughter to day care, she stops being one.