McDonough, Josefina Figueira2012-03-202012-03-2020071646-3749http://hdl.handle.net/10437/1928Campus Social : Revista Lusófona de Ciências SociaisPublic Assistance to the poor in the United States was always been reluctant and especially cruel to women. A society that from the outset prized Kantian principles of individual freedom over Rousseau’s notions of social contract and that was dominated by a puritanical morality saw poverty as self-made. If individuals had freedom of choice, bad outcomes were necessarily caused by bad choices. The poor had themselves to blame.application/pdfengopenAccessSOCIOLOGIASOCIOLOGYESTUDOS DO GÉNEROGENDER STUDIESMULHERESWOMENESTADOS UNIDOS DA AMÉRICAUNITED STATES OF AMERICAarticle