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Association of Libertarian Feminists

The Association of Libertarian Feminists (ALF) is an advocacy organization founded on 2 February 1973 in Oregon by Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate Tonie Nathan. In September 1975 it expanded becoming a United States-wide group. Its members have included Joan Kennedy Taylor, Andrea Millen Rich and Sharon Presley. Presley is the current executive director. ALF used to publish a semi-annual newsletter until 2001, with two final issues in 2004 and 2006. Currently, its activity is primarily directed at distributing individualist feminism information via Facebook.

Mission

ALF About
The purpose of ALF is to
  • encourage women to become economically self-sufficient
  • encourage women to be psychologically independent
  • publicize and promote realistic attitudes toward female competence achievement, and potential
  • oppose the abridgement of individual rights by any government on the basis of gender
  • work toward changing sexist attitudes and behavior exhibited by individuals
  • provide a libertarian alternative to those aspects of the women's movement that foster political dependence and collectivism

Members

Tonie NathanFounder
Sharon PresleyExecutive Director (formerly known as National Coordinator)
Andrea RichMember of the Board of Directors
Joan Kennedy TaylorNational Coordinator, 1989-2005

Websites

ALF.org - Association of Libertarian Feminists
Sections include: blog, newsletters, discussion papers, essays, recommended books, speakers bureau and links to related organizations and websites

Web Pages

AssnofLibertarian Feminists
YouTube channel of the Association of Libertarian Feminists

Articles

Joan Kennedy Taylor, by Jeff Riggenbach, 14 Jan 2011
Biographical essay, including a review of Taylor's book Reclaiming the Mainstream: Individualist Feminism Rediscovered; transcript of "The Libertarian Tradition" podcasts of 28 Dec 2010 and 12 Jan 2011
In Joan's view, ... the collectivists in the feminist movement were temporarily in the ascendant. Instead of cultivating their gardens, individualist feminists—libertarian feminists—should take the movement back from these collectivists. They should reclaim the mainstream ... Not long before the cancer robbed her of the strength to write, so that she had at last to curtail her many years of service as an officer of the Association of Libertarian Feminists, she managed to complete one more book, outlining a libertarian solution to the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace.
Libertarian Feminism: An Honorable Tradition, by Sharon Presley, 2 Dec 2014
Traces the feminist tradition from individualist anarchists in the 18th, 19th and early 20th century, to the creation in 1973 of the Association of Libertarian Feminists and on to present activism
By the 1970s only a handful of libertarian women and men spoke out on libertarian feminist ideas, its heritage seemingly forgotten. However Tonie (Theodora) Nathan (1923-2014), an Oregon journalist, changed that. In 1973, she founded the Association of Libertarian Feminists (ALF) in her hometown of Eugene, Oregon. At the Libertarian Party Convention in New York City in 1975, the national ALF group was founded. Its website came along in 1997 ... As ALF's Executive Director, I am pleased to report that ALF continues its activism today with a Facebook page, newsletters, essays, a blog, and a YouTube Channel, which will soon have new interviews.
Libertarian Feminists Ask Facebook to #FreeTheNipple, by Elizabeth Nolan Brown, 19 Jun 2015
Discusses the effort by ALF members to convince Facebook to change its policies regarding images of female nipples
Non-sexual images of women's nipples shouldn't be considered a "community standards" violation by Facebook argue members of the Association of Libertarian Feminists (ALF). Earlier this week the ALF Facebook page posted a link to an Iceland Monitor article about a #FreeTheNipple protest there ... All nine ALF page admins (which includes me) had their accounts suspended, along with several individuals who shared the article ... ALF head Sharon Presley and member Julie Mastine have since launched a petition to "Tell Facebook to #FreeTheNipple and Revise Policies Regarding Nudity."
Related Topic: Iceland
On Feminism, by Tonie Nathan, Willamette Valley Observer, 1977
Written about four years after the founding of the Association of Libertarian Feminists, explains what was the purpose of the group; reprinted in On Libertarianism (1981) and the 25th anniversary issue of ALF News (1998)
The Association of Libertarian Feminists (ALF) was founded on Ayn Rand's birthday, February 2nd, 1973 in my home in Eugene, Oregon. The first members included men, as well as women. I felt an organization was needed to offer an alternative to other women's groups. It seemed to me that many women who felt unjustly treated by many of our present inequitable laws were being used by leftists and socialists for political purposes. It seemed important to counter this outside the Libertarian party ... In September, 1975, ALF became a national organization at a meeting held in New York City.