Author: Susan Shaw

Susan M. Shaw, Ph.D., is a professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at Oregon State University.

Transphobia in Women’s Sports Is Dangerous for All Women

Olympic athlete and women’s boxing gold medalist Imane Khelif recently became a target for anti-trans activists and know-it-all couch potatoes. They decided Khelif was a man based on her perceived appearance and strength, rather than actual facts. So hyped are the anti-trans police that any woman who doesn’t seem to conform to gender norms is suspect and fair game, particularly if she’s public and successful. This is dangerous for all women, no matter their gender identity, and especially women of color.

If we accept transphobes’ arguments against all trans women in all sports, we inevitably accept a set of assumptions that harm women, trans and cis alike.

The Women’s Basketball Team’s Path to the Olympics Was Paved by Title IX

From Caitlin Clark’s success this season, to the Women’s Basketball Team shot at The Olympics this week, the history of women’s basketball has been paved by Title IX.

“It’s now over 50 years since Title IX was passed and it’s amazing how great U.S. women athletes are doing [at the Olympics]. Finally hearts and minds are getting closer to matching the law. People are investing in women’s sports as a business, not a charity,” said Billie Jean King.

(This article originally appears in the Summer 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

Don’t Think the Southern Baptist Convention Vote on Women Pastors Was a Win for Women

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The Southern Baptist Convention rejected a proposed amendment that would have designated any church with a woman pastor as no longer in “friendly cooperation” with the SBC. Those churches could have then been expelled from the SBC.

Some might express surprise at this vote and wonder if Southern Baptists are changing direction on women’s issues—if they’re becoming more accepting of women in leadership.

They’re not. This vote wasn’t at all about supporting women.

‘My Journey From Guerilla to Grandmother’: The Ms. Q&A With Katherine Ann Power

In 1970, college student Katherine Ann Power became involved with a revolutionary anti-war guerilla group. Power was the getaway driver when the group attempted to rob a Massachusetts bank to help finance the anti-war movement.
For years, Power lived as Alice Metzinger: baker, cook and eventually— mom. As she reflected on her own responsibility for the officer’s death, she concluded that she needed to turn herself in to begin the long process of redemption and restitution.

Power has just written a memoir about her experience, Surrender: My Journey from Guerilla to Grandmother. She recently talked with Ms. about her involvement in the anti-war movement, the killing of police officer Walter Schroeder, her time in prison and her reflections on it all. 

‘Surviving God’: An Excerpt on God, the Church and Sexual Abuse

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An excerpt from Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan M. Shaw’s new book, Surviving God: A New Vision of God Through the Eyes of Sexual Abuse Survivors:

“The God of our childhoods was terrifying. Sure, He (and it was always ‘He’) loved us, but we also knew He could destroy us in a moment if we displeased Him. Poof! Like Lot’s wife, we’d become a pillar of salt. God knew us intimately and had complete control over us. Like an abuser, He asked us to love Him even as he threatened us with the torments of hell if we didn’t.”

The Ms. Q&A: Singer-Songwriter Carrie Newcomer on Writing Her 20th Album, ‘A Great Wild Mercy’

Singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer has been making music that inspires, challenges, questions, and affirms for nearly 40 years now, and she just released a new album, A Great Wild Mercy, in late 2023. 

Susan M. Shaw sits down with Newcomer to discuss her songwriting process, what it’s like being a musician at 65, and just what it means to have, or show, “great wild mercy.”

Southern Baptists Consider Women’s Leadership a ‘Threat’

Southern Baptists are at it again, targeting women pastors in the next round of an ongoing battle over ordination and leadership in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

Never mind that more and more people are leaving churches and identifying as religious “nones.” Never mind that there is a clergy sex abuse scandal among Southern Baptists. The possibility of women’s leadership is such a threat, it has to be eradicated. So rather than dealing decisively with its clergy abuse scandal, the SBC’s annual meeting this June chose to spend its time pummeling women pastors and once again delaying necessary abuse reforms.

Pretty soon, they may just be sitting alone in their empty sanctuaries on Sunday mornings—because no one else is right enough to belong with them.

Male Sports Commentators Should Shut Up and Let Women Athletes Play—Starting With Angel Reese

The NCAA women’s March Madness tournament just broke all records for attendance and TV viewership. But what pundits and fans have been talking about is LSU forward Angel Reese’s giving Iowa’s sharp-shooting National Player of the Year Caitlin Clark hell with a couple of hand gestures.

Still, Reese has everyone talking, doesn’t she? Is that really a bad thing for women’s basketball?

Gender Integration in Sports: ‘I Have Been Suggesting This My Whole Life,’ Says Billie Jean King

Because sports historically have been socially constructed to highlight characteristics of male bodies and to preserve male dominance, sports can be reconstructed to be gender-integrated. People of all genders can and do play sports together in a lot of ways. The real question is whether or not society is ready to let sports start to challenge the gender binary and male dominance, rather than reinforce them.

(This story also appears in the Summer 2023 issue of Ms. magazine. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get the Summer issue delivered straight to your mailbox!)

Soccer Players Also Face Retirement Inequity

The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) won pay equity in 2022. While that’s an amazing achievement for these young women, another inequity looms for them down the road—retirement inequity. Across the board, women retire with 30 percent less retirement income than men.

Retirement services provider TIAA has launched a campaign to highlight retirement inequity and call for pay equity across all women’s careers.