title: WPF binding with Datacontext
body: <p>I'm new to WPF programming and I have this question going through my mind.</p>
  
  <p>Why does binding only work when using properties instead of fields?</p>
  
  <p>Here's the example that gave me this question:</p>
  
  <p>xaml:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding requiredPermissions}" DisplayMemberPath="MyText" Grid.Row="1" &gt;&lt;/ListBox&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>code behind(works):</p>
  
  <pre><code>public ObservableCollection&lt;MyNotifyableText&gt; requiredPermissions { get; set; }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>code behind (doesn't work):</p>
  
  <pre><code>public ObservableCollection&lt;MyNotifyableText&gt; requiredPermissions; 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance.</p>