Wendy McElroy
Individualist feminism
Voluntaryism, consistently applied.
Reformist VoluntaristOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Voluntarist hall →- Role
- Writer
- Era
- b. 1951
- Region
- Canada
- Social band
- Reformist
- Placement
- +68 · −80 · +45
§ Where Wendy McElroy stands
3 axesMcElroy is strongly pro-market, grounding economics in self-ownership and voluntary exchange. Her individualist feminism treats women's economic independence, through work, property and contract, as the real foundation of equality, and she rejects state regulation of labour markets as paternalism. In XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography (1995) she defended sex work as a legitimate trade between consenting adults.
McElroy is a voluntaryist who rejects the state outright and holds that the non-aggression principle applies without exception. The Voluntaryist, which she co-founded in 1982, argued that libertarians should neither seek office nor vote, since electoral politics legitimises state power, and should instead withdraw their consent and build voluntary institutions.
On social questions McElroy is a civil-libertarian progressive. She defends sexual freedom, pornography and sex work, opposes censorship and argues for women's equal rights under law, tracing the tradition in Individualist Feminism of the Nineteenth Century (2001). But she is sharply critical of mainstream feminism, which she sees as seeking state power and special protection rather than freedom.
How close are you to Wendy McElroy?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
LivingWendy McElroy (b. 1951) is a Canadian individualist anarchist writer, editor and historian of libertarian thought. In 1982 she co-founded The Voluntaryist newsletter with Carl Watner and George H. Smith, and the same year she edited Freedom, Feminism, and the State, an anthology recovering a tradition of individualist feminism reaching back to the nineteenth century. She has been a research fellow of the Independent Institute and has written extensively on Benjamin Tucker's journal Liberty and its circle.
McElroy is the leading modern voice of individualist feminism, which holds that women's freedom rests on self-ownership and equal rights under law, not on state protection or collective identity. She defended pornography and sex work as matters of consent in XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography (1995) and criticised what she calls gender feminism, campus sexual-assault policy and rape-culture rhetoric, most fully in Rape Culture Hysteria (2016). These positions put her at odds with mainstream feminists and made her a contested figure on both left and right.
Notable for
- 01Individualist feminism
- 02Voluntaryist writing
- 03Co-edited 'The Voluntaryist'
Key works & moments
- 1982Co-founds The Voluntaryist with Carl Watner and George H. Smith.
- 1982Edits Freedom, Feminism, and the State, an anthology of individualist feminist writing.
- 1995Publishes XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography, a consent-based defence of sex work.
- 2001Publishes Individualist Feminism of the Nineteenth Century.
- 2003The Debates of Liberty examines the arguments carried in Benjamin Tucker's journal Liberty.
- 2016Rape Culture Hysteria criticises campus sexual-assault policy and rape-culture rhetoric.
§ Minds closest to Wendy McElroy
All minds →
§ Also in the Voluntarist hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Wendy McElroy's political ideology?
Wendy McElroy is a voluntaryist and individualist feminist who applies self-ownership and the non-aggression principle without exception: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Reformist Voluntarist. Economically she sits firmly on the market side (+68), defending property, contract and voluntary exchange. On governance she is strongly anti-state (−80), rejecting even electoral participation, and socially she is moderately progressive (+45), championing sexual freedom and women's equal rights while criticising mainstream feminism.
Is Wendy McElroy left-wing or right-wing?
Neither comfortably. Her free-market economics and anti-state views are usually classed with the libertarian right, and her criticism of mainstream feminism, campus tribunals and rape-culture rhetoric has won her conservative readers. But her defence of pornography, sex work and sexual freedom, and her roots in nineteenth-century individualist anarchism, sit uneasily with social conservatives. She is best described as a libertarian anarchist and individualist feminist outside the usual left–right map.
What is individualist feminism?
Individualist feminism, sometimes called ifeminism, holds that women and men should have equal rights under law and that women's freedom rests on self-ownership and personal choice rather than state protection or group identity. McElroy traces it to nineteenth-century individualist anarchists and free-thought radicals, documented in Individualist Feminism of the Nineteenth Century (2001). It defends women's right to make their own choices about work and sex, and opposes laws, including those backed by other feminists, that restrict consensual behaviour.
Which minds are closest to Wendy McElroy?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Wendy McElroy are Julian Assange (96% alike), George H. Smith (96% alike) and Eric Hughes (95% alike). The furthest is Gregor Strasser (0% alike).