Not One Woman on the List

Earlier this month, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev announced the organizing committee for COP29, which will be held there in November. The list included 28 appointees, including Azeri government ministers of energy, health, finance and economy, among others. What the list did not include: women. Not one woman on the list.

The backlash was swift and thunderous. Global women leaders are speaking out: “Many of the key successes of the COP process, including the Paris Agreement, were delivered by women leaders, working closely with their male colleagues.”

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Women and the Iowa Caucus; Southern Legislatures Still Dominated by Men

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: Republican women are vastly underrepresented in comparison to their Democratic counterparts; nearly half of U.S. states have implemented abortion bans or restrictions; the struggles Indonesian women face when they aspire to have political careers; Mar Galcerán becomes the first woman with Down syndrome to be elected to Spain’s parliamentsand more.

Not Helpless, Not Silenced: What to Do if You Are Experiencing or Witnessing Online Abuse

Online abuse can feel like an enormous, insurmountable problem, but we are not helpless, and we refuse to be silent. Together we can fight back to make the internet safer, more equitable and more free.

Here’s what to do if you are facing online abuse; if you are witnessing online abuse; if you manage people who face online abuse; or you want to push the tech industry to do better.

Rest in Power: Alice Shalvi, the Mother of Israeli Feminism

The late Alice Shalvi was an Orthodox mother of six, a remarkable intellectual—and a breaker of glass ceilings who advanced women’s equality in realms both secular and religious. Her two enduring passions: promoting justice for all women and a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

(This article originally appears in the Winter 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

Rape Threats, Misogynist Slurs, Sexual Harassment and Doxing: How Online Abuse Is Used to Intimidate, Discredit and Silence

Eighty-five percent of women globally have witnessed online harassment and nearly 40 percent have experienced it directly.

Online abuse is made to feel targeted, personal, individual and organic—when in fact it’s often systemic, strategic and coordinated. Online abuse is one part of a broader spectrum of attacks—digital, physical, legal and psychological—intended to push women and nonbinary individuals offline, out of public discourse and out of their fields of expertise. Regardless of where they live and what they do, the goal is universal: to stop them from doing their jobs and shut them up.

(This article originally appears in the Winter 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

Ms. Global: Feminists Protest in Spain, Taliban Arrest Women for ‘Bad Hijab’, and More

The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.

This week: news from Spain, Afghanistan, Türkiye and more.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: France’s Second-Ever Woman PM Resigns; Threats to Nutrition Program for Low-Income Women and Children

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week:the potential risk to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); France’s prime minister Élisabeth Borne resigns after less than two years in office; St. Paul, Minn., elects an historic all-women city council using ranked-choice voting; and more.

The Taliban’s Weaponization of Education

The Taliban has been establishing religious schools all over Afghanistan. This cannot be a substitute for women’s education, nor a reason for the Taliban to gain international acceptance. These religious schools de-prioritize traditional subjects. By focusing on an education that closes off the outside world, Afghan students are being excluded from public life. This is unacceptable.

Compromising modern education means compromising the future of Afghanistan and the global community.

In Afghanistan, Women Are Dying on the Way to the Hospital or Inside It

In the Taliban’s Afghanistan, it’s not uncommon for three women to share a hospital bed. Nor is it rare for premature babies to share incubators. Families often cannot afford a trip to the doctor to get help for women or children, and more women are dying on their way to the hospital from pregnancy complications because they need to travel hours or even days to get care.

“It’s a perfect storm: less access to healthcare, less access to reproductive choice, and a declining number of healthcare professionals,” Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch said.

It’s Time to Recognize Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare Providers as Human Rights Defenders

“You need to stop this work. We know where your children go to school.”

Around the world, frontline reproductive healthcare workers are facing physical and verbal abuse, public shaming and humiliation, both in-person and online, harassment, legal threats, death threats, sexual assault and rapes—simply for doing their jobs. Yet, many of those who commit acts of violence against SRHR workers, or those who publicly incite antagonism, largely escape accountability for the consequences of their actions. Enough is enough.