The Cerberus Men: How Private Equity Is Reshaping Trump’s Pentagon

PUBLISHED 6/3/2026 by

Three recent developments reveal how Cerberus Capital Management’s influence has spread through the Trump administration’s Pentagon—from Navy leadership, to defense procurement, to a new $200 billion investment initiative.

When I first heard about the firing of Navy Secretary John Phelan, I naively assumed it might have something to do with reports from sailors complaining about poor food and deteriorating conditions aboard U.S. warships. That theory was far too old-fashioned.

Instead, I was reminded who Phelan really is: a billionaire private-equity executive, Trump fundraiser and co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management—the same firm whose executives now appear throughout the upper ranks of the Pentagon.

Helping smooth things over after Phelan’s departure is Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, another Cerberus co-founder with no military experience.

And the connections don’t stop there: Feinberg now oversees a new Economic Defense Unit expected to help direct as much as $200 billion over the next three years.

Another former Cerberus executive, David Lorch, has joined the Defense Department’s investment apparatus.

Whether discussing warships, defense contracts or Pentagon finance, the same names keep appearing. Cut off one head, and another seems to emerge.

The question isn’t whether Cerberus has influence in Washington. It’s how much influence Americans are comfortable giving it.

The History of the Women’s Rights Movement, 1600 to Present

PUBLISHED 6/3/2026 by and

From the Haudenosaunee women who successfully challenged warfare in the 17th century, to today’s feminist organizers defending democracy, reproductive freedom and civil rights, the struggle for women’s equality has never been a straight line. It is a story of persistence, resistance and collective action spanning centuries.

Compiled by editors at Ms. and researchers from the National Women’s History Alliance, this women’s history timeline traces the interconnected histories of feminism, abolition, labor organizing, civil rights, reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ liberation and democratic participation.

No timeline can fully capture more than 400 years of feminist history, let alone every movement, leader, victory and setback that has shaped the ongoing fight for equality. Rather than offering a comprehensive account, this chronology highlights pivotal moments and turning points that help tell the story of how women have expanded the boundaries of freedom, democracy and human rights in the United States and beyond.

The timeline is part of Ms. magazine’s FEMINIST 250: Founding Feminists project, a multimedia essay series marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by examining the women and feminist movements that have worked to make the nation’s founding promises more fully realized. Through reported features, essays, interviews and historical analysis, FEMINIST 250 explores not only where we have been, but where we must go next to achieve true equality.

FEMINIST 250’s Parts 2 and 3—Feminist Lessons and Feminist Futures—drop this month on MsMagazine.com.

How One Haitian Mother Rebuilt Her Life After Gang Violence—with Courage, Determination, Enterprise and a Small Loan

PUBLISHED 6/2/2026 by

Over the past 25 years, I have had the privilege of working alongside communities in Haiti, traveling there 35 times through my work with the Raising Haiti Foundation. I have met many people like Mirlanda Sully—women and men whose resilience, dignity and determination challenge the way we understand hardship. Her story is extraordinary, but it is not unique.

After armed gangs overtook her hometown, Sully fled with her husband and young son, leaving behind their home, business and possessions.

Arriving in a remote mountain community with nothing, she rebuilt her life through a women-focused microcredit program that provided small loans, business training and a network of support.

Today, she runs a thriving market business, mentors other women and helps ensure her neighbors can access essential goods closer to home.

Again and again, I have seen that lasting change does not come from outside solutions. It comes from investing in the strength, ingenuity and leadership that already exist within communities.

Sully’s story is a powerful reminder that transformation often begins with something small—a loan, an opportunity, a belief in what women can accomplish when given the tools to succeed.

91% of Voters Support a National Paid Leave Program. How Do We Make It Happen?

PUBLISHED 6/2/2026 by

The United States is one of only seven countries lacking a federal mandate for paid maternal or family leave. Within the country, only 13 states and D.C. have paid family and medical leave programs, acting as a lifeline for families.

Often considered by lawmakers to be a program too expensive to start, it’s the cost of inaction that lawmakers should be concerned with, according to Dawn Huckelbridge, executive producer of a new short film Lifelines and founding director of Paid Leave for All. 

“A lot of people miss their baby’s first smile. … They’re not there to hold their parent’s hand because they can’t get the time off work. … However it is funded in the long run, it is putting money back into the economy. It is saving jobs.”

Divya Mathur Holds One of Fashion’s Most Influential Jobs. Here’s How She Earned Consumers’ Trust.

PUBLISHED 6/1/2026 by

When Divya Mathur’s team puts a brand no one has heard of, on online fashion site REVOLVE—no big launch, no marketing push and no household name—it sells out, at roughly 90 percent full price. That’s not supposed to be possible in 2026.

In a crowded marketplace where the conventional response is to spend louder—bigger campaigns, more influencers, more reach—Mathur’s results suggest the opposite: In an attention economy oversupplied with everything, the scarce asset isn’t reach. It’s trust. As chief merchandising officer and fashion director at REVOLVE, Mathur serves as what she calls “a gatekeeper to the consumer,” helping determine which brands earn a place in front of millions of women shoppers.

Mathur’s path to helping steer one of fashion’s most powerful retail engines was built across nearly two decades in buying and merchandising, from Gap’s training program to Saks Fifth Avenue, Michael Kors, Shopbop and INTERMIX. A self-described “right-brain/left-brain kid,” she approaches merchandising as equal parts art and science—combining data, intuition and cultural fluency to understand not only who her customer is, but how she spends her time, what she values and what she will want next.

Raised between Silicon Valley’s first wave of Indian tech immigration and summers spent with family in India, Mathur learned early to navigate seemingly opposite worlds.

In an industry where women are often the consumers but less often the executives making the decisions, Mathur’s ability to synthesize analytics, instinct and cultural nuance has become its own competitive advantage.

“I’m always asking my team, ‘where is she [the consumer] wearing it?’ If they can’t answer in one second, it doesn’t make the cut. Doesn’t matter how pretty it is. If you can’t immediately picture the woman who loves this and exactly where she’s wearing it, the product isn’t differentiated enough.”

(This piece is part of an ongoing series, “Redefining Power: How Indian American Women Are Rewriting the Rules of Leadership, Identity and Care.” The series explores what it means to modernize without losing our roots—through candid conversations with Indian American women reshaping culture, power and possibility. Have a story to share or want to be interviewed? Reach the series author Jaime Patel at redefiningpower@msmagazine.com.)

June 2026 Reads for the Rest of Us

PUBLISHED 6/1/2026 by

Each month, Ms. provides readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.

Happy June! Happy Pride! Happy Caribbean-American Heritage Month! Happy summer!

Wherever you are and however you spend your month, I hope you are able to slow down, rest and enjoy life with a good book. 

War on Women Report: Abortion Access, Academic Freedom and Trans Rights Under Fire

PUBLISHED 5/31/2026 by

MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report:

—President Trump lost his latest appeal effort against paying New York writer E. Jean Carroll an $83.3 million defamation judgment.
—The government is using family separation as an antiabortion tactic via Child Protective Services.
—The House passed HR 2616, the so-called Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act, with support from eight Democrats; if enacted, the bill would bar federally funded public elementary and middle schools from acknowledging transgender students and require educators to notify parents if a student identifies as transgender at school.
—A reminder: People can order abortion pills from all 50 states, no matter what the courts decide.

… and more.

Judge Stops Trump Administration From Funding Antiabortion Extremists, for Now

PUBLISHED 5/30/2026 by

On Friday, in response to a lawsuit brought by Democracy Forward, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s “anti-weaponization” fund—which would have directly funded the work of antiabortion extremists. The $1.8 billon fund’s announcement explicitly identified antiabortion extremists convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act as presumptive recipients—the same FACE Act violators Donald Trump pardoned in January 2025.

The restraining order against the fund is intended to make sure that no funds are distributed before the lawsuit brought on behalf of the National Abortion Federation; Andrew Floyd, a former Jan. 6 prosecutor; professor John Caravello of New Haven, Conn.; and Common Cause, a government accountability group, has a chance to play out. It will pause the fund’s establishment until at least June 12.  

“President Trump wants to take your hard-earned tax dollars and hand them over to criminals, cronies, and insurrectionists,” said Common Cause president and CEO Virginia Kase Solomón in a statement announcing the lawsuit against the fund. “It’s unconscionable, and more importantly, it’s illegal.”

Buckle Up, the Primaries Are Coming: From New Mexico to California, Women’s Representation Is on the Ballot

PUBLISHED 5/29/2026 by

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!

This week:

—June primary contests will take place in 18 states.
—Concerning trends are taking place for women’s representation in New Jersey.
—The American Women’s History Museum on the National Mall is at risk.
—All 15 men in Donald Trump’s original Cabinet remain, but four of its seven original women are now left.

… and more.

How Punjabi Sikh Advocates Reimagined Domestic Violence Risk Assessment

PUBLISHED 5/29/2026 by and

As another domestic violence homicide-by-strangulation in the Punjabi Sikh community went largely unreported outside the community itself, we are reminded of how often opportunities for intervention are missed. Those misses stem not only from systemic biases, but also from a lack of community-specific knowledge and cultural humility among service providers. When domestic violence research and prevention efforts rely on broad assumptions or one-size-fits-all frameworks, they risk overlooking the complex realities of survivors whose experiences are shaped by family, community and systemic pressures.

At Sikh Family Center, we encountered these limitations firsthand while working with the widely used Danger Assessment tool and its later adaptation for immigrant women. Questions about who qualifies as an “immigrant,” differing scoring systems and the omission of key risk factors often created confusion rather than clarity. When a risk-assessment tool does not reflect survivors’ lived realities—or appears to make assumptions about their identities—it becomes less persuasive and less effective in helping them make life-changing decisions.

That experience led us to develop the Danger Assessment for Sikh Women, a tool created alongside Punjabi Sikh survivors and their families. By incorporating community-specific vulnerabilities, protective factors and culturally relevant questions, the assessment aims to improve safety planning while helping survivors recognize both the risks they face and the support systems available to them.

The lesson extends far beyond one community: Domestic violence prevention strategies must remain flexible, humble and responsive if they are to reach survivors whose experiences fall outside conventional assumptions.