From: N
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2019 5:23 PM
To: Walter Block
Subject: The Libertarian Gender Gap
Dear Dr. Block,
I am aware that the majority of libertarians are male. I would predict that the composition of anarchists are skewed even more male, as we are even farther from the mean than limited state libertarians are.
Would you say this has been true from your own personal observations? Are anarchists even more male than limited state libertarians?
At the Mises Institute the few women that were there that I met were all for a limited state, not anarchy.
From: Walter Block <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2019 7:28 PM
To: N
Subject: RE: The Libertarian Gender Gap
Dear N:
Yes, that has been my experience too. Males disproportionately comprise our libertarian movement. There are relatively few females to be seen at libertarian gatherings, and many of them are not libertarians, but rather the wives and girlfriends of male libertarians. Why is this? Some say it is due to personality types (https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types). Most libertarians fall in to one of these 16 personality types. And, like attracts like. But, this leaves unexplained as to why libertarians would gravitate toward this one personality type in the first place. Why wasn’t libertarianism started by women. There have been famous libertarian women in our past: Ayn Rand, Rose Wilder Lane, Isabel Patterson (https://fee.org/articles/3-women-who-inspired-the-modern-libertarian-movement/)
There are also precious few blacks and Orientals in our liberty movement. I’m not sure why this is either. I wish there were more
But don’t get me wrong. I don’t wish there were proportionately more females, blacks, Orientals in our movement, because this would mean fewer white males, and I am indifferent to our proportional make up. I only wish there were more females, blacks, Orientals amongst us on an absolute basis, for that would mean we were growing.
I have no views on the proportion of women libertarians who are an cap, versus minarchist.
On the other hand, don’t you realize there are now more than two genders? I think we’re now up to 34. Or, is it 57, like the number of varieties of Heinz products? Who knows? If the latter, I wish more of those 55 other genders joined us as well.
Best regards,
Walter E. Block, Ph.D.
3:20 pm on September 8, 2019
