The Voice of the Pandemic Generation

In 1970 Carol Hanisch published the essay ‘The Personal Is Political’. Hanisch (1970/2006) does not take credit for the title, attributing it instead to editors Shulie Firestone and Anne Koedt, and similar ideas have been around at least since John Stuart Mill. Yet in the heated political climate of the early 1970s, Hanisch’s essay has hugely influenced feminist activism, practice, theory, and policy — it has become the voice of a generation. In the process, the phrase ‘the personal is political’ has opened up numerous questions and debates.