Ok, I am going to show my extreme ignorance here but...

[FlamingOBingo]

...what does 'the personal is the political' actually mean?

It means that the way you live is all part of the power structure that you may be contributing to, so it is encumbent on feminists to make ethical choices.

Unfortunately it is often over-interpreted in downturns of struggle to substitute the personal for the political, and people get all arsey if you aren't wearing unbleached cotton sourced from a women's collective in Borneo and borne across the seas on the back of porpoises to make it eco-friendly, while ignoring that said smugger has done bugger-all of significance to forward the cause of feminism or socialism or whatever for eons, and only ever talks to like-minded smuggers to outsmug them.

I would use it in the context of, say a debate with someone about 'erotic' dancing or boob jobs etc. If they are saying that it is an individual's choice (and therefore not a feminist concern) to take up that profession or have that surgery, I would say that the individual 'choice' has political impact on the wider society as it affects the way women are seen i.e. as sex objects.

Yes what Prolesworth says.

Because lots of men paid lip service to the idea of female equality but then when they came home from work, expected their hot dinner on the table and were startled by the idea of their wife going out to work. So it was also pointing out to smug lefty men, that they couldn't separate their behaviour in their personal life, from their political views, the way some men like to.

Okey doke - I think I get it now!

Like campaigning for free range food but eating cheap unethically farmed stuff?

That's not really it, no, but it's to do with it, I guess. There is an article here about it that explains it quite well. I suppose that the phrase has slightly different connotations to different people, too.

Barbara - thank you. That link was really helpful