Abstract

This article places Angela Davis’s analysis of why the modern individual trends towards self-isolation in conversation with Alexis de Tocqueville’s competing account in Democracy in America. I argue that Davis misidentifies the problem of isolation as a ‘systems problem’, rather than as a ‘people problem’ (as Tocqueville implies), and that she underestimates the extent to which people’s self-understanding can evolve within the capitalist system. She argues that women’s oppression is a consequence of the isolation which emerges under capitalism, so she believes that the overthrow of capitalism is required to overcome it. Yet much progress in redressing women’s oppression has been achieved within capitalism as a result of its recent troubles. Accordingly, I suggest that Tocqueville offers a plausible theory of reform that can help feminists continue to rectify women’s oppression within the capitalist system. Specifically, feminists should heed Tocqueville’s counsel, that smart institutional interventions can help reform how people understand themselves, and focus on designing policies which can encourage people to move away from the belief that women are more naturally suited to domestic labour than men.