Author: Ms. Editors

A current list of Ms. print and digital editors can be found on the masthead.

What They’re Saying: Ms.’ New Book, ’50 Years of Ms.’

We’re so excited to share that our new book—50 YEARS OF Ms.: THE BEST OF THE PATHFINDING MAGAZINE THAT IGNITED A REVOLUTION (Alfred A. Knopf)—will be released on Sept. 19. The 576-page volume contains essays, profiles, conversations with and features by a number of notable feminists and Ms. scholars—including contributions by bell hooks, Alice Walker, Pauli Murray, Billie Jean King, Nancy Pelosi, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Allison Bechdel, Eleanor Smeal, Brittney Cooper and Joy Harjo, as well as fiction and poetry by Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Joyce Carol Oates and Rita Dove, among many others. Still not excited? Here’s what feminists are saying:

“50 YEARS OF Ms. couldn’t come at a more crucial moment. Sí se puede!” —Dolores Huerta

“Full of practical guidance and thoughtful insight, today Ms. remains an indispensable resource for navigating the challenges of the 21st century.” —Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)

Rest in Power: Peg Yorkin, Feminist Trailblazer and Supporter of Women in Politics

Peg Yorkin—leading U.S. feminist, philanthropist and strategist, as well as theater producer—died on Sunday, June 25, 2023, at the age of 96. In the midst of our collective grief, we honor and pay tribute to a co-founder as well as the one and only chair of the board of the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), publisher of Ms. Since the day FMF started in 1987, Peg Yorkin was important in conceptualizing the organization’s mission and potential significance in the struggle for equality and women’s rights.

“Peg was impatient. She wanted to see change now,” said Kathy Spillar, executive editor of Ms. and executive director of FMF. “She would constantly remind us of her age and wanted to see the changes in her lifetime. She thought big and had total confidence we could make a difference.”

National Survey: Americans Call for Childcare (March 1987)

From the March 1987 issue of Ms. magazine: “An overwhelming majority of Americans want employer-sponsored childcare programs, regardless of whether or not they have preschool children or are currently employed, according to Ms. magazine’s national survey. … But small percentages of those surveyed indicated that their employer currently offers any of these childcare services.”

Today, 35 years letter, America’s. social safety net remains woefully inadequate: The U.S. is the only country in the developed world that does not offer any paid maternity leave, and it ranks 39th worldwide for overall child health and well-being.

Global Authoritarianism, Women’s Rights and the Power of Feminist Organizing

“One thing that we see now, even with all of the challenges of a totalitarian government and of the Taliban dictatorship, is that the people on the frontlines of this fight are the women of Afghanistan. It is incredible that they are coming into the streets to fight for fundamental freedoms. I think this is a big lesson for all of us, even for those in the United States and others in the international community, to see these women now.”

(This essay is part of Women’s Rights and Backsliding Democracies project—a multimedia project made up of essays, video and podcast programming, presented by Ms., NYU Law’s Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network and Rewire News Group.)

The U.S. Democratic Backslide and Gender Equity: Its ‘Own Form of Intersectionality’

“Women’s power as decision makers in the political process does not reflect our numbers or our needs. Who holds legislative or executive office, and whether we do so in critical mass numbers and with agenda-setting authority, obviously matters tremendously to the design, the enactment, the implementation and the enforcement of laws that can help us or harm us. That includes of course the power to select the judges who interpret these laws.”

(This essay is part of Women’s Rights and Backsliding Democracies project—a multimedia project made up of essays, video and podcast programming, presented by Ms., NYU Law’s Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network and Rewire News Group.)

Iranian Human Rights Attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh Named ‘Global Human Rights Defender’ by U.S. State Department

Each year, the State Department awards 10 people the special designation of “Global Human Rights Defender.” This coveted award is reserved for individuals “who have demonstrated leadership and courage while promoting and defending human rights and fundamental freedoms; countering and exposing human rights abuses by governments and businesses; and rallying action to protect the environment, improve governance, and secure accountability and an end to impunity.”

Nasrin Sotoudeh—an Iranian human rights lawyer and long-time friend of Ms. magazine who has spent her career fighting for the rights of women and minorities in the Middle East—was one of the 10 recipients.

‘Dark Energy’: Poetry for Harriet Tubman

Last year marked 200 years since Harriet Tubman’s birth. To commemorate Tubman’s bicentennial, Ms. magazine launched the Tubman 200 project, honoring her extraordinary legacy.

The multi-disciplinary project included: conversations with Tubman’s descendants; an interactive timeline of Tubman’s life; essays from experts including Dr. Keisha N. Blain and Kate Clifford Larson; a calculator that determines what the U.S. (literally) owes Tubman; a portal for readers to submit their own haikus celebrating Tubman’s legacy; and original poetry—including the show-stopping “dark energy” by scholar and poet Alexis Pauline Gumbs.

‘Dear Ms.’: What Ms. Magazine Means to Readers, Over the Decades

“Finding Ms. felt like coming home—to myself, to my voice, to my intuition, to my knowing.”

We asked what Ms. means to you—and we were moved by your replies. Ms. magazine has been at the forefront of feminist journalism for half a century. The magazine was a brazen act of independence in the 1970s. Our readers recognize the impact Ms. has made over the past 50 years.

(This essay is part of the “Feminist Journalism is Essential to Democracy” project—Ms. magazine’s latest installment of Women & Democracy, presented in partnership with the International Women’s Media Foundation.)

Ms. at 50: Five Decades of Playing by Our Own Rules

“Mightn’t a publication—say, a newsletter—serve to link up women, and to generate income as well? … a publication created by and controlled by women that could be as serious, outrageous, satisfying, sad, funky, intimate, global, compassionate, and full of change as women’s lives really are.”
—’A Personal Report From Ms.‘, 1972

When it launched 50 years ago, Ms. magazine was a brazen act of independence—demonstrating the untapped potential for journalism that centered news and analysis on women and their lives and made a feminist worldview more accessible to the public.

Ms. continues to be the place where feminists find information and inspiration. And we thank you, our loyal readers, for these past 50 years—and the next 50! As the earliest editors of this magazine wrote, “Ms. belongs to all of us.”