Women on Liberty

About this Collection

Many women authors have contributed to our understanding of the nature of individual liberty and limited government through their writings about history, economics, and political philosophy.

Key People

Abigail Adams

Giandomenica Becchio

Maria Weston Chapman

Marie-Olympe de Gouges

Bettina Bien Greaves

Heather King

Catharine Macaulay

Joyce Lee Malcolm

Jane Haldimand Marcet

Harriet Martineau

Melissa Matthes

Mary Catherine Moran

Mikayla Novak

Jeanne Marie Roland de la Platière

Caroline Robbins

Ann P. Robson

Megan Marie Russo

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Sarah Skwire

Stephanie Slade

Germaine de Staël

Harriet Taylor

Mercy Otis Warren

Mary Wollstonecraft

Simone Zurbuchen

Titles & Essays

Group by Category

THE READING ROOM

A Friend to the Revolution: Mercy Otis Warren and the Ordinary Virtues of Republicanism

By: Sarah Morgan Smith September 13, 2022

If, as the saying goes, you can judge a man by the company he keeps, then Mercy Otis Warren ought to be more highly regarded.

THE READING ROOM

Abigail Adams’ Patriotism

By: Elizabeth Amato July 5, 2022

A Gallop poll shows a worrisome decline in patriotism among younger Americans. A mere half of Americans 35 and younger report being proud of their country. A generational shift is occurring that will have far-reaching consequences…

THE READING ROOM

Abigail and John Adams Disagree Over the Rights of Women

By: Steve Ealy July 7, 2023

In a letter dated March 31, 1776, Abigail Adams announces to John that spring has lightened her mood. “I feel a gaiety de Coar to which before I was a stranger.” Her light mood did not prevent her from raising heavy topics, however.…

THE READING ROOM

Considering The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

By: Renee Wilmeth October 20, 2021

“It was a beautiful place – wild, untouched, above all untouched, with an alien disturbing, secret loveliness. And it kept its secret. I’d find myself thinking, ‘What I see is nothing – I want what it hides – that is not nothing.”…

THE READING ROOM

Deborah Sampson: American Warrior

By: Kirstin Anderson Birkhaug October 11, 2022

Today, over 1.4 million women serve as active-duty members of the American military. While today’s acceptance of women in warfare is relatively new (women were allowed full participation in the Armed Forces with the Women’s Armed…

THE READING ROOM

Dolley Madison: Queen of America

By: Melissa Matthes August 11, 2022

One of the animating questions of the women’s movement in America has long been how much or even whether women should use the qualities and skills traditionally associated with their sex or whether they should try to overcome those…

LIBERTY MATTERS

Feminist Economics: The Conversation

Giandomenica Becchio (contributor)

The Conversation

Giandomenica Becchio,Response

Mikayla Novak, Response

Arnold Kling, Response

Jayme Lemke,Are there better ways to understand gender norms?

Giandomenica Becchio, Final Response:Do we need feminist...

THE READING ROOM

Founding Mother Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton…Remember Me!

By: Melissa Matthes June 30, 2022

When the wife, mother or sister of a famous man is invoked, the first inclination is to wonder how that woman might have influenced her celebrated male counterpart. It is a reasonable question. The next question is whether that…

THE READING ROOM

Frankenstein and the Wonder of Horror

By: Caroline Breashears October 25, 2021

At Halloween, the monsters gather at our doors for tribute. We expect the caped figures with fangs askew, the werewolves growling for candy, the square-headed toddler with bolts glued to his neck. We are not afraid, because we are…

THE READING ROOM

Jane Austen’s Smackdown of the Cult of Sensibility

By: Caroline Breashears September 12, 2023

In Jane Austen's "Love and Freindship [sic]," a young man declares that he will not marry the lady his father has chosen: "No never exclaimed I. Lady Dorothea is lovely and Engaging; I prefer no woman to her; but know Sir, that I…

THE READING ROOM

Kato Mikeladze at the Beginnings of Georgian Feminism

By: Irakli Javakhishvili December 11, 2023

A hundred years ago, even in the most difficult political situation, when the Tsarist Russian Empire was collapsing and Georgia was fighting for independence, there were fearless women who fought for equality and emancipation of…

THE READING ROOM

Martha Washington: First in the Heart of the President

By: Kirstin Anderson Birkhaug August 9, 2022

At George Washington’s funeral, General Henry Lee said of the great man that he was “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” These are some of the most famous words spoken regarding Washington,…

THE READING ROOM

OLL’s April Birthday: Mary Wollstonecraft (April 27, 1759- September 10, 1797)

By: Peter Carl Mentzel April 26, 2022

This month’s featured birthday anniversary is the English philosopher, writer, and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Perhaps best known for her book Vindication of the Rights of Women, she was crucially important in the arguments about…

THE READING ROOM

Phillis Wheatley: A First

By: Susan Love Brown September 29, 2022

Being first holds a significant place in American culture, for Americans love being Number One, being winners, being the First. For African Americans, being a first has a somewhat different meaning – it signifies another barrier…

THE READING ROOM

Reading A Room of One’s Own: Parts 1&2

By: Janet Bufton December 28, 2021

Everyone wants to have read Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Nowhere near as many have read it. I got to it (finally) in 2021. Read along with me, it’s past time.

THE READING ROOM

Reading A Room of One’s Own: Parts 3&4

By: Janet Bufton December 29, 2021

Returning to A Room of One’s Own, we find ourselves in the home—the room—of Woolf’s narrator, Mary. Having made her observations out in the world, she returns here to tease out and develop her thoughts. Disappointed with her trip to…

THE READING ROOM

Reading A Room of One’s Own: Parts 5&6

By: Janet Bufton December 30, 2021

In the concluding chapters of A Room of One’s Own, Woolf returns her narrator, Mary, to the present. Woolf then, finally, lends her own voice to the piece.

THE READING ROOM

Romantic Women Writers

By: Tracey S. Rosenberg September 19, 2023

Biography can be an excellent introduction to writers who have fallen into obscurity, and whose work is difficult to obtain or too slight to be a collected body of work. Kudos to Lucasta Miller and Frances Wilson for reconstructing…

THE READING ROOM

Studying the Founders: A Summary and Downloadable Collection

By: Thea Burress February 16, 2023

Over this past Summer, we invited scholars into the Reading Room to share their views on the Founding Fathers and Mothers and why we should read and understand them today. They explored the likes of George Mason, Deborah Sampson,…

THE READING ROOM

Three Scottish Writers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of But May Want To Discover

By: Tracey S. Rosenberg March 1, 2022

The Scottish Enlightenment is a vital part of the history of liberty. The works of Hutcheson, Carmichael, and Smith are foundational to the discussion of a free society. But the Scottish conversation about liberty did not end in the…

THE READING ROOM

Virginia Woolf in the Modern Art Museum: Marginalia of One’s Own

By: Sarah Skwire December 27, 2021

I recently had a chance to spend a morning at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm’s museum of modern art. Though I admit to a preference for Medieval and Renaissance art, Stockholm seems to bring out the modernist in me, and I wanted to…

LIBERTY MATTERS

We do need feminist economics, one that engages with Austrian economics

Mikayla Novak (contributor)

Read Giandomenica Becchio's Lead Essay.

LIBERTY MATTERS

We do need feminist economics, one that engages with Austrian economics

By: Mikayla Novak March 8, 2023

Read Giandomenica Becchio's Lead Essay.

LIBERTY MATTERS

Why Do We Need Feminist Economics? (March 2023)

By: Giandomenica Becchio, Mikayla Novak, Arnold Kling, and Jayme Lemke February 7, 2023

What is feminist economics? Is it a complement or subsitute for standard economic analysis? Regardless, why do we need it today? These are the questions that animate this Liberty Matters symposium. Led by Professor Giandomenica…

THE READING ROOM

Why Marvel’s Black Widow Would Love Mary Wollstonecraft

By: Caroline Breashears October 4, 2021

In Marvel's film Black Widow (2021), the Red Guardian (Alexei) praises the achievements of the two women he had pretended to father as part of a Russian sleeper cell: "Yelena, you went on to become the greatest child assassin the…

LIBERTY MATTERS

Yes, the Feminist Perspective is Still Undervalued in Economics

Jayme Lemke (contributor)

Read Giandomenica Becchio's Lead Essay.

Read Mikayla Novak's response.

Read Arnold Kling's response.

LIBERTY MATTERS

Yes, the Feminist Perspective is Still Undervalued in Economics

By: Jayme Lemke March 9, 2023

Read Giandomenica Becchio's Lead Essay.

Read Mikayla Novak's response.

Read Arnold Kling's response.

Quotes

Women’s Rights

Harriet Taylor wants to see “freedom and admissibility” in all areas of human activity replace the system of “privilege and exclusion” (1847)

Full Quote

Presidents, Kings, Tyrants, & Despots

Madame de Staël argues that Napoleon was able to create a tyrannical government by pandering to men’s interests, corrupting public opinion, and waging constant war (1817)

Full Quote

Liberty

Madame de Staël on how liberty is ancient and despotism is modern (1818)

Full Quote

Presidents, Kings, Tyrants, & Despots

Madame de Staël on the tyrant Napoleon (1818)

Full Quote

Women’s Rights

Mary Wollstonecraft believes that women are no more naturally subservient than men and nobody, male or female, values freedom unless they have had to struggle to attain it (1792)

Full Quote

Women’s Rights

Mary Wollstonecraft likens the situation of soldiers under a tyrant king to women under a tyrant husband (1792)

Full Quote

Women’s Rights

Mary Wollstonecraft’s “I have a dream” speech from 1792

Full Quote

Politics & Liberty

Mercy Otis Warren asks why people are so willing to obey the government and answers that it is supineness, fear of resisting, and the long habit of obedience (1805)

Full Quote

Revolution

Mercy Otis Warren on Civil and Religious Rights and Tyranny

Full Quote

Women’s Rights

The Women of Seneca Falls and William Blackstone

Full Quote