The changes in women’s economic, social, and political status in Cuba since 1959 have been “a revolution within the revolution.” These gains have not been conquered simply parallel to, let alone outside, the historic struggle by Cuba’s working people, male and female, to throw off the chains of US imperialist domination and capitalist rule. To the contrary, in the words of former Cuban president Fidel Castro, the fight for women’s equality has been “a moral necessity, a revolutionary necessity” inseparably intertwined with the uncompromising battles through which Cuba’s toilers have defended their socialist course—transforming themselves in the process. Introduction, photos, map. Also available in: Spanish .