Feminist Theories on the Separation of the Private and the Public: Looking Back, Looking Forward

This article discusses the development of feminist theories concerning the separation of public and private spheres. It reconstructs the critique of a dichotomization of both concepts and applies newer problematizations, for example the concept of experience, to the earlier dictum of the women's movement that the private/personal is political. This analysis of discourses concerning private life and the public sphere is devoted not only to a historical reconstruction but it also casts a glance into the future, into a transformed cultural and media landscape, and poses questions as to the role of the private in the public sphere and beyond, as to whether the public sphere would have to protect privacy. (UW)