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Molecular markers derived from polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of genomic DNA are an important part of the toolkit of evolutionary geneticists. Random amplified polymorphic DNA markers (RAPDs), amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) and intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) polymorphisms allow analysis of species for which previous DNA sequence information is lacking, but dominance makes it impossible to apply standard techniques to calculate F‐statistics. We describe a Bayesian method that allows direct estimates of F_ST from dominant markers. In contrast to existing alternatives, we do not assume previous knowledge of the degree of within‐population inbreeding. In particular, we do not assume that genotypes within populations are in Hardy–Weinberg proportions. Our estimate of F_ST incorporates uncertainty about the magnitude of within‐population inbreeding. Simulations …