Adapted
by Jon Engstrom from
texts written by Wendy McElroy
Today, the majority of American women feel alienated from forms of feminism
that do not address their daily needs. One can understand their disillusionment.
American feminism has forgotten its roots and taken a disastrous turn away from
the true interests of women.
Self-Ownership and Equal Treatment
GreenLiberty.org encourages a rediscovery of the rich and distinctly
American tradition of individualist feminism: a tradition based
upon self-ownership and equal treatment under just laws. Although
the American tradition draws heavily upon British Classical Liberalism
-- particularly the work of British author and feminist Mary
Wollstonecraft Shelley -- American women also organized around
issues uniquely their own, such as Puritanism, the American Revolution
and slavery.
The individualist feminism GreenLiberty.org seeks to promote extends the
slogan "a woman's body, a woman's right" to every peaceful decision a
woman can make- from motherhood to participating in pornography, from being
CEO of an international corporation to prostitution. We believe women and men
should be treated equally under just law -- that is, under law which protects
the person and property of every human being.
Women should neither be hindered nor helped by government. And
since the system that best reflects freedom of choice and impartial
equality is the free market, individualist feminism is pro laissez-faire;
it seeks community-based rather than government solutions to social
problems. We extend a warm hand of welcome to any woman or man who
agrees with these goals. For an extraordinary wealth of information
on all aspects of individualist feminism or to perhaps join the
individualist feminism community, please visit I-Feminists.com.
Competing Traditions
The competing tradition of individualist feminism has been socialist
feminism. Both types of feminism state that women should have the same rights as men, but the meaning
of equality has differed within the feminist movement. Socialist feminists have
sought equality based upon equal treatment under existing laws and equal
representation within existing institutions. Their focus was not to change the
status quo in a basic sense, but to be included within it.
The more radical feminists saw the existing laws and institutions
themselves as sources of injustice, and, thus, could not be reformed,
but rather were in need of replacement. These feminists saw something
fundamentally wrong with society beyond discrimination against women,
and this was reflected in their concepts of equality. To the individualist,
equality was a political term referring to the protection of individual
rights: that is, the moral jurisdiction every human being has over
his or her own body. Socialist feminists have seen equality to be
a socioeconomic term. (For more on this, read
Wendy McElroy's essay "The Roots of Individualist
Feminism in 19th Century America".)
Toward a New Paradigm
The socialist-feminist paradigm seeking socioeconomic equality
is well-entrenched in the mainstream feminism of today, and its
results have been harmful. For example, as a former lawyer in the
U.S. Dept. of Labor, James Goettel studied such issues as workplace
harassment. He concludes that the socialist feminist movement "has
not removed sexism; it has increased it by making people conscious
of gender and creating a gender war." Joan Kennedy Taylor states
in her book What to Do When You Don't Want
to Call the Cops that "Sexual harassment laws violate
men's freedom of speech by requiring managers to become censors.
Intended to cure hostility in the workplace, these laws make it
worse and encourage a Victorian view of women as prudes needing
protection."
GreenLiberty.org encourages the embrace of individualist feminism where
socialist feminism has failed. Freedom and choice do not threaten
women. Government and orthodoxy do. We cannot create equality with
men by having gender privileges embedded in our laws. A new generation
faces the new millennium. The women and men of this generation deserve
to see a new feminist paradigm that celebrates their individual
rights and the diversity of their choices.