Freedom Book of the Month for March, 2002:

Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the Twenty-First Century
edited by Wendy McElroy, Ivan R. Dee and the Independent Institute 2002, paperback, 353 pp.

A decade ago, feminism was firmly in the grip of the collectivist left and its individualist, pro-freedom wing was engaged in a struggle for survival. Over the last ten years, however, "ifeminism" has become a strong voice in the women's (and men's) movement, challenging gender feminism's claim on the moral high ground and even the very history of the feminist movement.

Much of ifeminism's success has been due to the unending work of Wendy McElroy, and nowhere is the effect of that work more evident than in Liberty for Women. The 18 essays which make up the book are a testament to the current and coming successes of individualists to reclaim feminism as the expression of freedom that it was always intended to be.

The book is divided into six sections. The first deals with foundational aspects of ifeminism, and the other four with women and (respectively) sex, family, work, violence and technology.

The authors, including ACLU president Nadine Strossen, feminist icon Camille Paglia, Ayn Rand scholar Mimi Gladstein and others, squarely face such issues as pornography, abortion (including the impact of new reproductive technologies), prostitution, victim disarmament ("gun control") and affirmative action. Each essay offers thoughtful, if not always dispositive, commentary from an uncompromisingly feminist, and uncompromisingly libertarian, perspective.

Whether the reader is seeking an introduction to ifeminism or a deeper understanding of its tenets, Liberty for Women is the book we've been waiting for. While ifeminists, incuding McElroy, Joan Kennedy Taylor (whose work is also present here) and others have produced numerous volumes on specific issues, this is the first notable anthology since 1999's Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand to collect a diversity of ifeminist thought between two covers.

Liberty for Women is as much celebration as it is exegesis: a long-overdue celebration of liberty's ascendancy in the world of feminism and vice versa.

Order Liberty for Women from Laissez Faire Books for $14.95.

Visit ifeminists.com, Free-Market.Net's ifeminist channel, hosted by Wendy McElroy.

February 2002: The State vs. the People by Aaron Zelman and Claire Wolfe.

Freedom Book of the Year, 2001: Hope by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith.

January 2002: Death by Gun Control by Aaron Zelman and Richard W. Stevens.

December 2001: The American Zone by L. Neil Smith.

November 2001: Ayn Rand and Business by Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni.

October 2001: Junk Science Judo by Steven J. Milloy.

September 2001: Jonathan Gullible by Ken Schoolland.

August 2001: Hope by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman

July 2001: Dissenting Electorate edited by Wendy McElroy and Carl Watner

June 2001: Tethered Citizens by Sheldon Richman

May 2001: Lever Action by L. Neil Smith

April 2001: The Cato Handbook for Congressfrom the Cato Institute

March 2001: The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by David Kelley

February 2001: Crypto by Steven Levy

January 2001: Total Freedom by Chris Matthew Sciabarra

Freedom Book of the Year 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith

December 2000: The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto

November 2000: Escape from Leviathan by J.C. Lester

October 2000: The Art of Political War by David Horowitz

September 2000: An Enemy of the State by Justin Raimondo

August 2000: The Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell

July 2000: A Generation Divided by Rebecca Klatch

June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman

May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith

April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben

March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand

February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler

January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood

Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz

November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell

October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy

September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe

July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman

June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant

May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz

April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille

March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary

February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra