Wendy McElroy

Wendy McElroy
Wendy McElroy speaking in Springfield, Illinois, September 16, 2006.
Born	1951 (age 65–66) Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Writer

Wendy McElroy (born 1951) is a Canadian individualist anarchist. She was a co-founder along with Carl Watner and George H. Smith of The Voluntaryist magazine in 1982.

Among feminists, McElroy identifies herself as being sex-positive, defending the availability of pornography and condemning anti-pornography feminism campaigns. Citing prior work by Greg Lukianoff, she has also voiced criticism of sexual harassment policies, particularly grade-school zero-tolerance policies - which she considers to be "far too broad and vague" and based on biased reports.

In explaining her position in regard to capitalism, McElroy says she has a "marked personal preference for capitalism as the most productive, fair and sensible economic system on the face of the earth," but recognizes that the free market also enables other economic systems. She says what she wants for society is "not necessarily a capitalistic arrangement but a free market system in which everyone can make the peaceful choices they wish with their own bodies and labor", and therefore describes herself as a supporter of free market economics.

She credits Murray Rothbard's book Man, Economy, and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles as being "solely responsible for turning [her] from the advocacy of limited government to a lifetime of work within the individualist-anarchist tradition."

McElroy has been a vocal defender of the whistleblowing site and its head Julian Assange.

McElroy has repeatedly worked with George H. Smith, another well-known anarcho-capitalist author. But in 2015 the relationship between McElroy and Smith became rancorous, to the point where McElroy complained of "sexual slander," victimization and exploitation.