Feminists for Liberty is a libertarian feminist group. On The Bob Zadek Show, it was described by host Bob Zadek as a group co-founded by Reason associate editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown, and Brown herself described it as a group she co-runs. The group appears in the excerpts only in the closing minutes of episodes, where Brown lists it among the places listeners can follow her work.
Identification and co-founder
In the March 5, 2019 episode on the war on sex workers, Zadek introduced his guest by noting that she is the co-founder of the libertarian feminist group, Feminists for Liberty. He identified her as an associate editor at Reason magazine who writes regularly on the intersections of sex, speech, tech, crime, politics, panic, and civil liberties, and who had won multiple awards for her writing on the US government’s war on sex. Elizabeth Nolan Brown on the War on Sex Workers (2019)
The same episode’s closing segment has Brown directing listeners to the group’s website and Twitter account. She told the audience to visit reason.com, gave her own Twitter handle, and added that she also runs a group called Feminists for Liberty, with the website feministsforliberty.com and the Twitter account @FeministLiberty. Elizabeth Nolan Brown on the War on Sex Workers (2019)
Across episodes
The group recurs in three episodes, all in Brown’s closing remarks rather than in substantive discussion. In the 2019 episode on sex work, Zadek supplied the co-founder description and Brown supplied the website and Twitter handle. In the September 6, 2022 episode on the student loan debt fiasco, Brown again listed the group among her projects, saying she co-runs a libertarian feminist group called Feminists for Liberty and directing listeners to feministsforliberty.com; Zadek repeated the web address back to her. The Student Loan Debt Fiasco (2022) In the September 12, 2022 episode on student loan debt forgiveness, the exchange is nearly identical: Brown said she co-runs a libertarian feminist group called Feminists for Liberty and gave the website, and Zadek repeated the address. Student Loan Debt Forgiveness (2022)
What changed between the earlier and later treatment is only the surrounding context. In 2019 the group is mentioned alongside Brown’s sex-work reporting and her Reason Weekend appearance; in the two 2022 episodes it is mentioned alongside her Reason newsletter, the Reason Roundup, and a piece she was working on in defense of algorithms. The description of the group itself does not develop across the excerpts: it is called a libertarian feminist group each time, Brown is described as co-running or co-founding it each time, and the website is given each time. No episode in the excerpts discusses the group’s origins, its members, its positions, or its activities.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state when Feminists for Liberty was founded, what its founding principles are, who its other co-founders or officers are, or what it does. They do not describe any publication, campaign, or event associated with the group, and they do not say whether it is a membership organization, a project, or something else. The only concrete facts the excerpts supply are the group’s name, its description as libertarian feminist, Brown’s connection to it as co-founder or co-runner, and its website and Twitter handle.