I understand the liberated woman to be a woman who is not tied down to the patriarchy and instead is hard-working, makes her own money, does not depend on a man, has sex with whomever she wants to, wears what she wants, and does not let a man or society dictate her aspirations in life. The liberated woman might be important for women’s liberation because she embodies the ideal woman that is free of the chains of society and men. Women’s liberation is the movement that women undergo/seek to be free and able to express themselves freely. The liberated woman has already been freed. The group of liberated women speak out on equality and challenge traditional roles that have been set forth as the precedent and the norm for women’s behavior.

In regards to each reading, they both explain how women can be liberated in defying traditional views of women’s duties. In “The Politics of Homework” a woman who works and contributes to the cleanliness of her home, rather than works and takes on full responsibility of her home’s cleanliness, is a liberated woman. There is no reason, according to the author, why a woman should work a full-time job to make money like her husband, contribute to the bills of her home, and on top of that be assigned ALL of the house chores. In “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” the reader is able to see how women are sexually controlled. A liberated woman has sex and achieves orgasm, which is made possible through clitoral stimulation, instead of being there solely for her partner’s enjoyment. The author indicates how the vaginal orgasm was construed so as to be able to diagnose women as ill when they were not able to achieve one simply because their partner’s were not able to stimulate them in the correct organ for their sexual pleasure.

The phrase “personal is political” gives legitimacy to women’s issues, allowing women to recognize that their problems are not isolated and singular but are instead collective and transpire due to their social conditions. These pieces show that “personal is political” because they describe personal issues that women deal with based off of the beliefs of society, especially of those of men. Both pieces explain the laws/practices that are put into place because of those beliefs and how these practices directly affect women as a collective and diminish them.