Ms. Global: Women Make Up Two-Thirds of Ebola Cases in DRC, Families Mourn Fishers Killed in Trump’s Boat Strikes and More

PUBLISHED 6/16/2026 by and

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 healthcare. 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 month: news from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Denmark, Mexico and more.

Making a Killing: Who Profits From Trump’s Foreign Policy? Trump and His Inner Circle.

PUBLISHED 6/16/2026 by and

As we wait for the details of the Trump administration’s proposed deal with Iran, one thing is already clear: The people benefiting most from U.S. foreign policy are often the people making it.

From Jared Kushner’s role in Middle East negotiations, to the Trump family’s rapidly expanding business empire, this administration has blurred the line between public service and private profit in ways that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

U.S. foreign policy has never been free of criticism or influence from wealthy interests, but Trump has taken those dynamics to new extremes. While Americans face rising costs at home and vulnerable communities around the world suffer the consequences of conflict, the president’s family and closest allies appear positioned to reap financial rewards. The result is a foreign policy that prioritizes enrichment over accountability, and power over the public good.

We need a different vision—one rooted in transparency, peace and shared prosperity rather than personal gain. Foreign policy should serve people, not billionaires. It should reduce conflict, uphold human rights and improve lives, not create new opportunities for those already at the top to grow even wealthier.

Join Ms. Magazine and Get Our Landmark FEMINIST 250 Print Issue for This Pivotal Moment in American History

PUBLISHED 6/16/2026 by

As the U.S. prepares to mark its 250th birthday on July 4, 2026, questions loom over the celebration: Whose America gets remembered, whose gets erased—and how do we imagine and build a democracy that includes all of us? 

In the Summer issue of Ms., we revisit the nation’s founding through a feminist lens, reclaiming the stories too often left out of the official narrative: women who challenged the authors of the Declaration of Independence and later the U.S. Constitution for deliberately writing women out of America’s founding documents, Black women who resisted oppression from the start, Indigenous societies built around women-led governance, queer lives in revolutionary America, Asian women’s struggles for belonging and the long fight to make disability visible in our history.

We also look back at 54 years of feminist reporting from the pages of Ms.—proof that the battles for bodily autonomy, equality and democracy did not begin yesterday—and forward to the bold new ideas that could shape a freer, fairer future for the next 250 years.

Get a year of Ms. for just $20 (a 43 percent discount off our usual price) when you join today!

Carré Otis Has Opened a Door for Survivors of Abuse in the Modeling Industry. Will Others Walk Through It?

PUBLISHED 6/16/2026 by

A new legal door opened earlier this month in the fight for survivor justice. But it’s not in the United States, where survivors and advocates continue to press for transparency and investigations into Jeffrey Epstein’s larger network and the modeling industry’s potential role in it. It’s in France.

Carré Otis, a U.S.-based former supermodel and board member of the Model Alliance, filed a criminal complaint in French court alleging rape of a minor and human trafficking by Gérald Marie, a former giant of the modeling industry who led Elite Model Management’s European operations from 1985 to 2010.

The complaint alleges that Otis was 17 when Elite sent her to Paris in 1986 and housed her in Gérald Marie’s apartment, where she “mistakenly believ[ed] that he wanted to support her modeling career.” While living there, Otis alleges that Marie raped her on multiple occasions and later arranged for her to be “provided to other wealthy men across Europe.” The complaint also says Otis was never paid for her modeling work.

Marie has denied Otis’ allegations, and because of France’s statute of limitations, cannot be criminally prosecuted for these particular allegations.

Still, Otis’ recent filing could prove consequential well beyond her own case.

‘Nope, You’re Fine’: This Black Doctor Nearly Died After Giving Birth in Reno

PUBLISHED 6/16/2026 by

A first-person account from Dr. Bayo Curry-Winchell, a Black family physician and the medical director for Saint Mary’s Urgent Care Group in Reno, Nevada. Curry-Winchell nearly died after giving birth by C-section at her own hospital after repeated warnings that something was seriously wrong were dismissed. Her story—shared with writer Bonnie Fuller—underscores the stark realities of America’s maternal mortality crisis, which disproportionately endangers Black women regardless of education or income.

“I was 38 and had just delivered my second baby, a little girl, at the Reno hospital where I was a medical director at the time. …

“I remember holding my new daughter in the recovery room, then being wheeled into my hospital room. That’s when I started feeling like something wasn’t right. I didn’t feel like myself. I was having a hard time talking, and I was in a lot of pain. …

“I wasn’t capable of using my medical training in that moment. But I had to do something. I handed my phone to my husband, James, and told him to call my OB-GYN right away. … Dr. Jack believed him and came right back to the hospital. …

“It turned out that I still had retained products, including placenta and fetal tissue, in my uterus. Unfortunately, this can happen sometimes, especially after a prior C-section. I also was bleeding internally. I had lost so much blood, I had to have a transfusion. …

“American Black women have a very high maternal mortality rate, and I lived it myself. If my doctor had not believed my husband and me and returned to care for me, I would have been like other Black women you hear about passing away after giving birth.”

The Untapped Power of Post-Menopausal Women

PUBLISHED 6/14/2026 by

Melinda French Gates announced last week a historic $215 million commitment to women’s health, including a $10 million gift to the Menopause Society. It is a beautiful and necessary act of generosity.

It arrives on the same day a new Mayo Clinic study showing hormone therapy use among menopausal women has dropped to a historic low of 1.7 percent—even as evidence of its safety has grown.

We are moving backward and forward at the same time.

French Gates put a spotlight on the fact that women’s health has been inexcusably underfunded. The questions to add to that conversation: What would medicine look like if it saw menopause not as nature’s mistake, but as evolution’s investment? What would our economy look like? What would our communities look like? What problems might we finally solve?

The science exists. The economic case is clear. And the legislative momentum is building. What is missing is the cultural shift that allows medicine, policy and society to see post-menopausal women not as a problem to manage, but as a resource we cannot afford to waste.

Whose America Turns 250? Democracy Is Still a Feminist Fight

PUBLISHED 6/13/2026 by

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, we face a fundamental question: Whose America are we celebrating?

From the unfinished promise of the Equal Rights Amendment, to the fall of Roe v. Wade, the story of American democracy has always been intertwined with the struggle for women’s equality.

Women—especially Black women—have long been among democracy’s most engaged participants, yet the institutions meant to represent the people continue to fall short of reflecting the nation’s diversity, needs and aspirations.

The erosion of reproductive freedom, voting rights and representative government are not separate crises; they are connected symptoms of a democracy that remains incomplete. Anti-democratic forces have repeatedly overridden popular will, making it harder to achieve broadly supported policies that would improve the lives of women and families. The fight for gender equality, bodily autonomy and political power is inseparable from the fight to build a democracy that truly works for everyone.

That conviction is at the heart of FEMINIST 250: Democracy’s Feminist Future, which begins at Ms. Thursday, June 18.

Through essays from leading advocates, organizers and thinkers—including LaTosha Brown, Skye Perryman, Reshma Saujani and Inimai Chettiar—the series offers bold ideas for strengthening democratic institutions, advancing equality and creating a more inclusive future.

Taken together, these essays remind us that democracy remains a feminist project—and that the next chapter of the American experiment is still ours to write.

This Week in Women’s Representation: LA’s Next Mayor Will Be a Woman; Ranked-Choice Voting in Maine May Help Elect Back-to-Back Woman Governors 

PUBLISHED 6/12/2026 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!

—Los Angeles is sure to keep a woman as mayor, after City Council member Nithya Raman secured a spot in a runoff, currently holding 29 percent of the vote compared to Karen Bass’ 34 percent.
—June 11 marked the birthday of former U.S. Rep. Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to federal office in the U.S.
—On June 16, Washington, D.C., will hold its first primary elections with ranked-choice voting.
—Liberation playwright Bess Wohl is the first American woman to win the Tony for Best Play since 1989.

… and more.

America’s Medical Research System Has Been Failing Women for Generations

PUBLISHED 6/11/2026 by and

For decades, women have been systematically excluded, overlooked and underfunded by America’s scientific and medical institutions—and the consequences are measurable. Women were not required to be included in federally funded clinical research until 1993, and even today, no more than 8.8 percent of NIH grant spending goes toward women’s health research. The result is a dangerous knowledge gap that affects everything from cardiovascular disease and autoimmune disorders to drug safety, maternal health and reproductive care.

The problem transcends partisan politics. While the Trump administration’s cuts to women’s health research have intensified concerns, Democratic and Republican administrations alike have failed to prioritize women’s health.

Private philanthropy and venture capital have also fallen short, with women’s health receiving just a fraction of available funding.

As women face rising healthcare deserts, worsening maternal mortality rates and persistent gaps in diagnosis and treatment, meaningful progress will require action on every front—from federal investment and philanthropy to innovative new funding models focused specifically on women’s health research.

What the PCOS-PMOS Rebrand Tells Us About the State of Women’s Health Research

PUBLISHED 6/11/2026 by and

The announcement in May of 2026 that polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) will be renamed polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) was a genuine milestone. After 14 years of global collaboration, 22,000 survey responses and workshops spanning every inhabited continent, researchers and patients finally agreed on a name that reflects what the condition actually is: not a quirk of the ovaries, but a complex, multi-system disorder of hormones, metabolism, and endocrine function affecting one in eight women worldwide.

For decades, the term polycystic had patients and clinicians alike focusing on ovarian cysts, while metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance went underappreciated and undertreated. Patients report feeling dismissed, confused, and dissatisfied with their care. The very name, researchers concluded, contributed to stigma, delayed diagnosis and fragmented policy.

But renaming a disease is not the same as researching it. And for women’s health, the research has been underfunded and undervalued for so long that a vocabulary fix (however warranted) cannot close the gap on its own.