a crucial issue with respect to democracy in the social realm is democratisation of the household one possible solution is the removal of the divide between the household and the public realm thus some feminist writers particularly eco-feminists glorify the oikos and its values as a substitute for the polis and its politics this can be understood as an attempt to dissolve the public into the private at the other extreme some marxist feminists attempt to remove the publicprivate divide by dissolving all private space into a singular public a socialised or fraternal state sphere another possible solution is taking for granted that the household belongs to the private realm to democratise it in the sense that household relationships should take on the characteristics of democratic relationships and that the household should take a form which is consistent with the freedom of all its members