A dam has broken for women, stemming from the case of the Cornell student who was allegedly gang-raped at a fraternity in 2024.
On Thursday, Ms. joined forces with Women’s March, me too. International and other organizations in promoting a National Day of Action. Students walked out of their classes on more than 50 college campuses across the U.S., protesting campus administrations that offer no recourse or support for victims, and a president who has been repeatedly accused of sexual assault, and was found guilty of sexual abuse.
In the 1980s, Ms. published the first national study of sexual assault on college campuses. What our researchers found was, at the time, shocking—at least, to the college administrators: Over half of women surveyed had experienced “some form of sexual victimization,” and one in eight women had been victims of rape—though of those women, nearly three-quarters didn’t identify their experience as rape.
Over four decades later, “date rape” is no longer a new term, and many more campuses offer freshman-year trainings on consent and resources for students who experience sexual violence. Yet still, young women on campuses are harassed and assaulted—and still, university and state-level legal systems fail to provide justice.
“The details of what happened to Jane Doe are horrifying, but at least they are now being reported and considered credible. This has not always been the case,” wrote Ellen Sweet, former Ms. magazine editor and coordinator of the Ms. Magazine Campus Project on Sexual Assault in a recent New York Times letter to the editor. “Now there is a public outcry for transparency and accountability that can’t be ignored. Let’s hope colleges and law enforcement finally learn their lesson.”
We’re in a crucial moment for young women to be mobilizing. Young people are shaping up to be a deciding force in the upcoming midterms. A New York Times/Siena poll found that across eight Senate races, voters under 30 heavily favor Democrats, by a 30-point margin. While the Times’ analysis doesn’t mention women as a group driving that support, it’s not hard for us to guess who’s really behind that 30-point advantage.
The latest Economist/YouGov poll confirms women are driving Democrats’ lead in the polls: 51 percent of women say they plan on voting for Democrats in congressional elections, compared to 41 percent of men. And new polling from The 19th/YouGov on young women voters shows that things like the overturning of Roe and the #MeToo movement, which occurred during formative years for Gen Z women, are informing the choices they make at the ballot box.
… 51 percent of women say they plan on voting for Democrats in congressional elections, compared to 41 percent of men.
The bottom line is that women’s votes decide elections—we saw that in last fall’s gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, both of which elected Democratic women governors with supermajorities of women’s votes.
We know that in this moment, young women are fed up and deeply, deeply angry. The midterms offer an opportunity to channel that anger into tangible, meaningful change.
That change could include a Congress that is willing to recognize that the Equal Rights Amendment has been ratified—which would provide the basis to enact stronger laws on gender-based violence, including restoring the civil rights remedy in the Violence Against Women Act, giving women like Jane Doe further recourse. But an ERA-friendly Congress is something we’ll have to fight for.
Yet another reason to make a plan to vote early.
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A note from Ms. editors: We want to hear from you for The Majority, a new campaign collecting stories about how reproductive freedom has enabled readers to build the lives they want and need.
Poll after poll shows a majority of Americans support reproductive healthcare access. Yet public debate overlooks the lives shaped by abortion access, contraception, IVF, miscarriage care, maternal healthcare or comprehensive sex education—countless women who chose to pursue an education, have children, not have children, protect their health and chart their own future. What’s your reproductive freedom story? Add your voice. Together, these stories will help show not only why reproductive freedom remains a majority value, but also what it makes possible.
