ABSTRACT
Liberal feminists have an ambivalent attraction to libertarianism. On the one hand, libertarian political theory offers the prospect of freedom from lopsided, unchosen obligations, such as the majority of family responsibilities, that have been unfairly laid upon women. On the other hand, libertarian economic freedoms place few obligations on the state to care for those who cannot care for themselves, which leaves many women with a bad set of options. Women’s traditional upbringing puts them in a poor bargaining position when it comes to dividing up shares of otherwise unmet needs by dependent others. Women have been conditioned to see and respond to needs and often find it difficult not to respond when the state or someone else does not fulfill those needs. But by offering care in the breach, so to speak, it seems (or can be made to seem) to be voluntary and uncoerced. Furthermore, women are themselves sometimes in need of care, and in the libertarian state would not be able to receive it as a matter of right.
