The personal is political

It forced popular social movements to challenge what was considered to be "political" and to reflect upon how lived experiences impact the perception of reality.

[4] Furthermore, the slogan tackles the perception that women enjoy a transcendent identity irrespective of ethnicity, race, class, culture, marital status, sexuality and disability by encouraging individuals to think about personal experience politically.

[6] Hanisch disavows authorship of the phrase, saying that "As far as I know, that was done by Notes from the Second Year editors Shulie Firestone and Anne Koedt after Kathie Sarachild brought it to their attention as a possible paper to be printed in that early collection".

At the time Hanisch was a New York City-based staffer of the Fund and was advocating for engagement in dedicated organizing for women's liberation in the American South.

[11] Hanisch sought to rebut the idea that sex, appearance, abortion, childcare, and the division of household labor were merely personal issues without political importance.

To confront these and other issues, she urged women to overcome self-blame, discuss their situations with each other, and organize collectively against male domination of society.

She takes pains to highlight the fact that these issues should not be seen as problems caused by women's failures but rather by an oppressive system and should be treated as such, even though they may appear purely personal.

The phrase has heavily figured in black feminism, such as "A Black Feminist Statement" by the Combahee River Collective, Audre Lorde's essay "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House", and the anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, edited by Gloria E. Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga.

More broadly, as Kimberlé Crenshaw observes: "This process of recognizing as social and systemic what was formerly perceived as isolated and individual has also characterized the identity politics of African Americans, other people of color, and gays and lesbians, among others.

Betty Friedan broke new ground as she explored the idea of women finding personal fulfilment outside of their traditionally seen roles.

[33] Martha Wilson is a New York artist whose work reveals how her identity as a woman has been shaped by forces around her, like power relationships, culture and gender.

[34] As argued by Frances Rogan and Shelley Budgeon in The Personal Is Political: Assessing Feminist Fundamentals in the Digital Age, technology has broken down the distinction between what is private and public even further.

[3] They assert that at the same time, social media can act in a way that portrays women's bodies and appearance as signifiers of worth.