Freedom, feminism, and the state: An overview of individualist feminism: Wendy McElroy, ed. Foreward by Lewis Perry. Washington, D.C.: The Cato Institute, 1982. 357 pp. ($7.95 ISBN 0-932790-32-1 paperbound)

Abstract

The issues that gave rise to the women's movement are still with us today. Feminism as an organised force dates from abolitionism prior to the Civil War when, fighting to free the slaves, women became conscious of their own legal disabilities. From these anti-statist roots, the women's movement eventually divided over such issues as sex, the family, and support for World War I. This newly revised edition traces individualist feminism from these origins up to the present day. It demonstrates that on issues from sex and birth control to business and science, government has been the real obstacle preventing women from achieving freedom and equal rights. The authors include abolitionists Sarah and Angelina Grimke, anarchists Emma Goldman and Voltairine de Cleyre, journalists Rose Wilder Lane and Suzanne La Follette, social critic Lillian Harman, and modern writers such as Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English, Rosalie Nichols, and Jean Bethke Elshtain. Wendy McElroy, in her introduction, discusses such controversies as individualism and socialism in the feminist tradition, economic freedom and the role of women, and the contemporary differences between mainstream and individualist feminism. She issues a ringing and provocative call for women to recapture their individualist heritage.