While stemming from the same literary origin, a liberated woman is different from Women’s liberation. A liberated woman is a woman who has managed to free herself from the restrictions society puts on women. She is in control of her body, her sexuality, her life and her ideologies. On the other hand, women’s liberation is the movement that strives to free women from societal gender norms and expectations. In simple terms, a liberated woman has liberated herself despite society, and women’s liberation is society working to liberate women.

Men, and society as a whole, are more accepting of a liberated woman since it is something a woman does on an individual level. She overcomes the barriers society puts on her by her own means. Furthermore, men also get to reap the benefits of her sexual liberation and economic and marital independence. In contrast, women’s liberation would require men, and society, to check their attitudes towards women. They would actively need to make changes in their daily lives, and be inconvenienced by doing things they expect women to happily oblige to. Like Pat Mainardi says in The Politics of Housework, “Liberated women-very different from Women’s Liberation! The first signals all kinds of goodies, to warm the hearts (not to mention other parts) of the most radical men. The other signals-HOUSEWORK.” Women’s liberation presents as a chore to men, they’d have to give up their privileges. No wonder most men do not make efforts for women’s liberation despite advocating for it. This is where the liberated woman comes into play. A liberated woman has broken free from the sexist conditioning society enforced on her, she is aware of her worth as equal to that of men, and will hold men accountable for their sexist notions. A liberated woman is also a symbol, the evidence, that women don’t have to depend on men for a fulfilling life and hence, help change the ideas that have bound us to archaic notions of gender roles. The more the number of liberated woman, the more the pressure on society to revisit their treatment of women. In this way, a liberated women is important for women’s liberation: by pushing the society to do the liberating.

At first glance, Mainradi’s The Politics of Housework and Anne Koedt’s The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm both look like personal matters relating to one’s household or sexual lives, and hence nothing of political pertinence. However, on a closer look, we can see that both these pieces show “personal IS political”. They highlight how people in power (men) enforce narratives in order to keep women ignorant and unaware, so that they can better subjugate them for their benefits. Whether it’s by perpetuating the idea that women love household chores or women are not biologically built to enjoy sex, they make women fault themselves when they finally recognize the unfairness. The only reason women’s liberation isn’t considered political is because men in power say they’re not political. However, these issues don’t just shape a household or community. It is on the basis of these assumptions and narratives that legal policies and health guidelines are made. “But the severest damage was not in the area of surgery, where Freudians ran around absurdly trying to change female anatomy to fit their basic assumptions.” None of the experiences, traditions, norms and roles an individual encounters exist in a vacuum, they are an amalgamation of the collective narratives society enforces to “not disturb” the existing system that “works”. Of course the personal is political.