ABSTRACT
Different claims concerning the relationship between public and private realms are central to feminist theory as a whole. One powerful, and representative, challenge to the distinction is that presented by Catharine MacKinnon: For women the measure of the intimacy has been the measure of the oppression. This is why feminism has had to explode the private. This chapter discusses the differences between internal and external criticisms of distinctions. It examines one factor which makes this particular distinction so difficult to challenge externally: that the terms "private" and "public" assume a variety of meanings, with differing normative implications, within the relevant literature. The chapter explains the grounds for the feminist challenges to the public/private distinction, both external and internal. Feminists argue that this relegation of women to the "private" is unjust because it burdens women in many ways. The "private" becomes simultaneously invisible and purely "self-regarding", and therefore of no public interest.
