ABSTRACT
This being an essay in an encyclopedia of Third World women, it is pertinent to ask whether Cuba is a Third World country. The social and human-development indicators reveal that Cuba does not match the definition of a Third World state neatly. Cuba’s health, education, and welfare figures rival those of industrial states. The economic-development figures, on the other hand, paint a radically different landscape: Economic considerations certainly permit labeling the island a “developing country,” particularly since the onset of the 1986 recession, which was exacerbated by the demise of Communism and Cuba’s consequent loss of Soviet-bloc aid and subsidies.
