About 200 organizations and 700 individuals filed 27 legal briefs in June v. Gee, an abortion case before the Supreme Court, on December 2. One brief—filed by the Feminist Majority Foundation, NOW, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Women’s Law Project—showcases how TRAP laws, in a climate of violence and harassment against abortion providers, force clinics to close.
Author: Carrie N. Baker
Carrie N. Baker is Professor and Director of the Program for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. Her 2007 book The Women's Movement Against Sexual Harassment won the National Women’s Studies Association Sara A. Whaley Book Prize. Her second book, Fighting the US Youth Sex Trade: Gender, Race and Politics, tells the story of activism against youth involvement in the sex trade in the United States between 1970 and 2015.
“Personhood” Zooms in on the Chilling Consequences of Anti-Abortion Laws
If you think “The Handmaid’s Tale” is fiction, the chilling new independent documentary film from Jo Ardinger and producer Rosalie Miller about the widespread detention and criminal prosecution of pregnant women in the United States, will move you to organize for a new Mayday.
Making Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Visible
I encourage everyone to take a few moments, as the Thanksgiving season winds down, to think about Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, Hanna Harris and the thousands of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in the U.S. and Canada.
The Trump Administration’s Attempt to Allow Discrimination in Healthcare Was Just Struck Down
The United States District Court in New York City issued a thorough and forceful decision Wednesday striking down the Trump administration’s recently-adopted “conscience exemption” policy granting broad rights for anyone working in the health care industry to refuse reproductive health care to women, even in emergency situations when a woman’s life is in danger.
Time’s Up in Classical Music
The tremendous power and prestige of conductors and concertmasters provides ample opportunities for abuse. But the abuse can start much earlier, among teachers and young students.
Sisterhood in the Brotherhood: Fighting Sex Discrimination in Construction
In the half-century since Congress prohibited employment discrimination and President Lyndon Johnson signed executive orders requiring government contractors to hire more people from underrepresented groups, women have come a long way in breaking into many traditionally-male fields, but the construction industry has lagged.
One Year After His Confirmation, Evidence of Brett Kavanaugh’s Abuse is Stronger than Ever
New York Times journalists Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly have published the results of their nearly year-long investigation into Brett Kavanaugh and the allegations against him by Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez in “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh.” Unfortunately, the authors bend over backwards to be fair to Kavanaugh—at the expense of fairness to Ford and Ramirez.
Killing Us Softly: Then and Now
For generations, Jean Kilbourne’s documentary film Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women has been transforming consciousness by revealing how the advertising industry promotes impossible beauty norms to make women insecure so they will buy products. To mark the 40th anniversary of the film, feminists across the generations gathered at Smith College to celebrate Kilbourne’s legacy.
The Ms. Q&A: Cynthia Lowen Puts Cyber Harassment in Focus in “Netizens”
“How is this happening? How is this possible that people can send really specific death threats and that there is nothing being done? This project started so I could understand why and how that was happening. What were the systems that were allowing this to proliferate?”
The Climate Crisis is a Feminist Issue
We’ve heard stories about natural disasters time and time again as global warming has intensified, resulting in more “worst-ever weather events.” But we are less likely to hear what happens next.