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Due to their characteristics, cooperatives have a great potential for women and men to participate on equal terms, although gender imbalances still exist. In order to explore this issue, this paper reviews the evolution of the cooperative movement with respect to gender equality, paying attention to the forces in the environment that have strengthened this position. It also analyses the elements that act in environments as disparate as those of Cuba and Spain and that favor the participation of women in cooperatives. Reference is made to Non-agricultural Cooperatives in Cuba and Associated Work Cooperatives in Spain, which are similar organizations. Using a qualitative methodology, theoretical methods of a socio-legal nature were used, which made it possible to focus on the evolution of cooperativism as part of a historical process and to compare the cases of both countries. The corpus has been made up of the main international declarations on gender and the Social Economy, as well as laws, regional and national public policies that promote gender equality in cooperatives. The results indicate that, with the particularities of each country, the evolution of the international context has exerted pressure for action in this area. However, the changes introduced by cooperatives require that the experience for women be successful, in terms of promoting real long-term empowerment and being a viable economic alternative that transcends the times of crisis that have encouraged them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]