ABSTRACT

The recurrent problem of privacy for women at home is twofold. First, women face the problem of overcoming inequitable social and economic patterns that substitute confinement to the private sphere for meaningful privacy. Second, women face the problem of enjoying and exploiting individual privacy without sacrificing worthy ideals of affiliation and benevolent caretaking to self-centeredness. Real privacy at home is possible for women to the extent that sexual privacy rights, innovative approaches to marriage, childcare, housekeeping, and their alternatives are tools women can use to secure the privacy home life can bring. For Americans the home is the center for the experience and enjoyment of privacy. The problem of privacy for women at home is, in part, the problem of overcoming the tradition of inequality through confinement to the private sphere of home and family. Liberal feminism presents one response to the problem by placing a high value on personal privacy and embracing the private sphere as occasions for privacy.