To man the square; to woman the house

denunciation and social criticism in New Portuguese Letters

Abstract

Fifty years after its publications the New Portuguese Letters, symbolic of women's struggles for gender equality in Portugal and in the world, continue to resonate with current generations in a somehow similar way to that found with women of the time. Linked with feminism when feminists saw themselves in the stories of those women, the New Portuguese Letters question the power relations built by society, where social, political, and cultural inequalities based on gender differences dictate(d) women’s «inferiority» in relation to men. The aim of this article is to explore to what extent the literary discourse of the «Three Marias» was paramount to the social criticism of women’s condition in Portugal, mostly regarding professional status, equal pay, access to employment and the right to have a career, establishing a reference for social, cultural, and legislative changes that occurred after the Portuguese Carnation Revolution of 1974.