“Feminism is an umbrella term that covers a rich diversity” of views, said Foxnews.com columnist Wendy McElroy, speaking in Midtown Thursday at NYC Junto, a monthly meeting featuring topics relating to libertarianism, investing, and the philosophy of Ayn Rand. “There is no one form of feminism.”

In a provocative presentation, she outlined her support for “individualist feminism,” which argues that all humans have moral and legal claim to their own persons and property.

Ms. McElroy’s views, elaborated on a Web site she edits called ifeminists.net, show her to be a dissenting voice among feminist writers and thinkers. Her opposition to affirmative action puts her at odds with many mainstream feminists, yet her support for the decriminalization of pornography and prostitution opposes the views of many conservatives.

She said the mainstream approach to feminism in America, which she called “gender feminism,” treats men and women as separate, opposing classes and less as individuals with identical rights and political interests. According to Ms. McElroy, “gender feminism” invites state control and intervention.

“Gender feminism,” she said, views justice as having a “specific endstate,” embodying particular economic and political arrangements. This contrasts with individualist feminism which is “means-oriented.”

She offered the example of marriage: for individual feminists, the method by which marriage is achieved is of principal importance. She said as long as marriage involves the “peaceful, voluntary interaction of adults,” the state has no proper authority in regulating a private contract.

She went on to say that the government should not be involved in regulating whom a company hires or fires in the workplace. She said she holds this view because she wants to claim the right for herself to associate freely with whomever she wishes. She also broached the subject of midwifery, and said women should be able to choose how to give birth to their own children.

She spoke of “individualist feminism” having roots in abolitionism of the 1830s. “In fighting for the rights of slaves,” she said, abolitionist women began to ask, “Do we not have the right to our bodies?”

Additionally, she discussed key predecessors for “individualist feminism,” including Moses Harman (1830-1910). For 24 years he edited a free love periodical in Kansas, and opposed state involvement in regulating marriage, divorce, and birth control. The staff of the magazine was arrested and indicted on 270 counts of obscenity. Harman had a “free word” policy where he did not remove explicit language from letters he published. At age 75, he was eventually sent to prison in Joliet, Ill., doing hard labor breaking rocks. His 16-year-old daughter was imprisoned for marrying without the church or state being involved.

Ms. McElroy said Harman was praised by anarchist Emma Goldman, who credited him with paving the way for her birth control work. Asked in 1907 why he was not coming to tour America, dramatist George Bernard Shaw cited how Harman was jailed for espousing basically the same view as his play “Man and Superman.”

Yet Harman “does not merit a footnote in many histories. Where is the nod of gratitude to him?” She added, “These people have been abandoned by feminist scholarship.”

The audience posed questions to her. One asked about her views on pornography. She described having written a book that set out to “test empirically the claim that women are forced into pornography.” In her interviews, she found it not to be the case. Another asked her to complete the comparison: “women is to feminist, as men is to …” She answered, “masculinist.”

Speaking of future trends, she said the men’s rights movement was becoming more salient, as it battles “anti-male bias” institutionalized in family courts. She said that these men, like many feminists of the 1960s, want equality and justice to be gender-blind. In the area of fathers’ rights, she said, a divorced father is often at a disadvantage in gaining access to his children.

She also predicted that “gender feminism,” which was so effective in embedding itself on college campuses, is “going to fall of its own weight.” It made itself “increasingly irrelevant in the 1980s and 1990s.”

One of the last questions regarded her view of Ayn Rand. Ms. McElroy said she admired Rand’s philosophy. Ayn Rand did not like feminism, she said. “But I think she’d like me.”

Ms. McElroy wrote “Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the 21st Century” (Ivan R. Dee) and has recently co-edited with Carl Watner the book “National Identification Systems: Essays in Opposition” (McFarland).

In attendance were Pink Snow of Erocktica Enterprises, who is currently at a seminar running through July 16 at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. presented by the Objectivist Center; graphic designer Iris Bell, who was showing Susan Paris photos from Las Vegas, N.V.; Eleanor Rosenblatt, who works in education, talking with Dr. Robert Flanzer, who in light of the bombings in London, brought along a yellow hardhat with the words “Wake up, America!”

On many chairs in the room were fliers announcing the monthly chapter meeting of the Manhattan Libertarian Party on July 13 at Ukrainian East Village Restaurant, where the speaker will be Thomas Woods Jr., author of “The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History” (Regnery). NYC Junto’s next speaker is Marty Lewinter, a computer science professor at Purchase College whose interests include guitar and karate. He will speak August 4 on “The History of Mathematics: Five Thousand Years of Cleverness.” The Knickerbocker asked him to explain the title of the talk. He said to just come and hear it. Very clever.