A Voice for Gender Sanity by Wendy McElroy Individualist feminism, or ifeminism, is currently a subcategory within the broader feminist movement. This was not always the case. That is, every individual had a moral jurisdiction over his own person. When the abolitionist applied this principle to themselves, American feminism was born and its ideological foundation was the rights of the individual. Although individualism and the advocacy of natural law are not synonymous, the latter has been a dominant theme within ifeminism.
Natural law is an attempt to delineate the duties that are universal to every human being.
Rights and duties are mirror images. For example, the right of a woman to her own body implies the duty of all others not to aggress against her. It is not a synonym for legislation. Although rights and duties are not categories of fact, they are far more than mere conventions upon which human beings have agreed. Human values derive directly from reality and human nature.