Why feminism can only be liberal

French essayist Mathilde Berger-Perrin, author of Ayn Rand, selfishness as heroism, The market economy is women's best friend. She invites them to expect less from the state.

Using the market economy as a lever for emancipation, using the law sparingly and making individualism its ethic: these three criteria, taken together, are the prerequisites for a fairer world for women. In militant circles, this postulate is far from popular, it's even heresy. And yet: where liberalism flourishes, patriarchy retreats. Without it, patriarchy^[1] prosperous.

Capitalism, women's best friend

Feminist literature often accuses capitalism of oppressing women. Yet, with the advent of post-industrial, market-economy societies, the status of women has never improved so rapidly and massively.

Take a map of the world and see where the status of women is best. At the top of the gender equality index are^[2] the most capitalist countries, starting with Ireland, Switzerland, Denmark and the UK. On the contrary, in the least economically free countries, 7.42% of women aged 25 and over have higher education qualifications, compared with 40.84% in countries with open economies. In the latter, 82% of women have a bank account, compared with 25% in closed economies.^[3].

More mistrust of the state

When it comes to feminism, we tend to expect a lot from laws. Yet history has shown that legal progress is not irreversible: what the State gives, it can take back. Abortion is unconstitutional at federal level in the USA, and virtually banned in Poland. The return of the Taliban to Afghanistan wiped out in two weeks the women's rights built up over twenty years. To quote liberal feminist Camille Paglia: «Having escaped dependence on fathers and husbands, should women now transfer this humiliating power to the labyrinthine bureaucracy of the state?»

The law isn't everything: Iran's constitution is completely egalitarian! In his essay Feminicene (2023), Véra Nikolski shows that women's emancipation is due to industrialization and economic growth: the law and mentalities followed.

This abuse of trust in the state gives rise to cosmetic or counter-productive policies. In France, the government is widening access to medically-assisted procreation (MAP), without facilitating it; criminalizing the clients of sex workers, to the detriment of their safety; imposing a tax system that prevents women from making up for wage inequalities; introducing a day against violence against women, when there are not enough police officers trained in this scourge.

Our societies need laws that are put into practice, rather than an ever-growing legal arsenal. So, should we expect nothing from the State? No, but we should expect a minimum priority: the application of the rule of law. At the same time, let's have the wisdom not to entrust the state with everything concerning the status of women.

Moral individualism, the mother of all battles

At the root of both liberal philosophy and feminism is the right to self-determination. In all societies, a woman is rarely the main character in her own life, and her destiny is still instrumentalized for purposes other than leading her own life. The first objective of feminism should be to make the choice the mother of all battles. Without the recognition of women as free individuals, nothing is possible.

Let's fight so that everyone can stand up knowing that no god, no political system, no social pressure will encroach on women's freedom. Let them have the right to dance, work, dress as they please, and define their own happiness, instead of being sex objects or wombs for a nation.

The trial of imperialism

This individualistic battle has been abandoned by activists, for fear of being accused of imperialism, or out of cultural relativism. As a result, they are more likely to denounce tradwives American feminists - who advocate the return of the woman to the home - than the practice of female circumcision. Feminist ethics, such as gender theory and intersectionality, are strategies for emancipation without a future, as long as women are not recognized first and foremost as free and rational individuals. The Istanbul Convention, which aims to combat violence against women, has not been ratified by certain countries because of the definition of the word «gender»...

If we have more opportunities than our elders, it's because we have demanded that our mores evolve towards the individualization of women. Why should this be the privilege of wealthy societies? Not to impose a model of free individuals and therefore free women doesn't prevent us from fighting for everyone to be free to make their own choices.

Read also | The contradictions of the new feminism

If you too believe that an acceptable status for women implies at least the freedom to educate, work, travel, dress, earn money and love, without fear of violence from men, it is in our democracies that this status is most closely approached. And not in spite of liberal values, but thanks to them.

A philosopher by training, the French essayist Mathilde Berger-Perrin will shortly be publishing his second book, Pour un féminisme libéral - The second sex in the first person, published by Presses de la Cité.

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^[1]By this, we mean the institutionalization of a hierarchy between men and women in favor of the masculine.

^[2]World Population Review, «Gender Equality by Country», 2022

^[3]Fraser Institute, «Impact of economic freedom and women's well-being», 2017.