One of feminism’s most enduring contributions to political thought has been its insistence that personal life matters politically. Long before questions of identity, subjectivity, and everyday life became fashionable across the humanities and social sciences, feminists argued that political domination was reproduced through intimate relationships, family structures, social norms, and personal experiences. The slogan “the personal is political” captured a central feminist insight: social transformation requires more than changing institutions. It also requires changing ourselves.

This commitment to linking the subjective and the structural has shaped feminist theory and practice for decades. Feminists have often combined structural analyses of oppression with an interest in ethical conduct, personal experience, and self-transformation. Political emancipation has been understood not only as a collective project but also as a personal one. Feminism, in this sense, has never been concerned solely with changing the world. It has also been concerned with changing the self.

Today, however, this relationship between ethics and politics has become increasingly complicated. Over the past four decades, neoliberalism has transformed not only economies and states but also the ways individuals understand themselves and their responsibilities. As many critics have observed, neoliberalism encourages us to see ourselves as autonomous, responsible subjects whose successes and failures are largely products of our own choices. Social problems are increasingly interpreted as matters of individual responsibility rather than collective political concern.