Author: Susan Shaw

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

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.

They Fought Like Girls: How a 1979 Softball Team Saved the Sport

The women of the 1979 Oregon State University softball team used Title IX as a tool for institutional change. Decades later, they’re finally getting the recognition they deserve.

“At that time the most successful teams on campus were women’s and we had to fight with the athletic department for everything … I think I just reached my limit and felt like we had an opportunity to try to do something. I wanted justice.”

Survivors Face Backlash For Reporting, 50 Years After Title IX. What Does Justice Look Like For Them?

Title IX created much support for survivors of sexual harassment and sexual assault on the basis of sex discrimination, requiring institutions to address such harms in the workplace and in schools.

Ms. spoke with Alexandra Brodsky, civil rights lawyer and co-founder of Know Your IX, about the new backlash survivors still face coming forward, and the new ways activists are fighting for change and survivor-informed support.

‘If Not for Them’: Brenda VanLengen’s Journey to Document Women’s Basketball

Brenda VanLengen is a TV sports analyst and play-by-play announcer for college women’s sports. “I’m so fortunate that [Title IX] happened when it did,” she told Ms. Without it, she explained, “I wouldn’t have the life that I do or the career that I do.”

This year, she’s embarked on a new venture to produce a docuseries about the women who grew the sport of women’s basketball before Title IX, If Not for Them.

The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Just Won Equal Pay—Cue the Misogynist Backlash

The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team announced a deal that guarantees women and men who play for the national teams will receive the same compensation opportunities. While feminists and USWNT fans celebrated the decision, not unexpectedly, misogynists came roaring back with cries of “Unfair!” “Wokeness!” “Biology!”

It seems a number of men on the internet are outraged by the very suggestion that women athletes might be deserving of equal pay.

Sexual Abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention Points to Subordination of Women and Girls

The recently released investigative report on the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) mishandling of clergy sex abuse allegations is damning. Research suggests a strong correlation between perpetrator beliefs about gender, social context and sexual abuse.

“Why should it be up to the men to decide what constitutes justice for the women and children, while the women are expected to abide by the decisions made for them?”

From West Coast to Westminster, Five Feminist College Students on the Importance of Study Abroad

From West Coast to Westminster, Five Feminist College Students on the Importance of Study Abroad

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Five students reflect on the lessons they’ve learned and a unique perspective they’re developing while studying abroad with in a program focused on feminist pedagogies and content.

“We are the surgeons of humanity, trying to repair the damages inflicted by our ancestors while at the same time perfecting our technique so our tomorrow is an improvement from yesterday.”