But i am not asking for myself alone. It Is as a potential mother and as one woman to another: reflections on gender and poverty through Letters from the great depression

Abstract

Letters addressed to public authorities or figures are important for examining a time, since the reason for their writing and the requests they contain prominently demonstrate social inequalities and subjective issues, and are spaces of intimacy. In the light of gender and feminist studies, letters sent to President Roosevelt and other figures during the Great Depression are analyzed to reflect on the economic crisis, focusing on the analysis of poverty. The study also problematizes gender differences in the realm of this phenomenon, since during the New Deal the strongest idealizations fell upon women. These idealizations sought to maintain a masculinist social and gender ideal.