Author: Susan Shaw

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

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

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

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.”

An Open Letter to the Queer Community in the Wake of Fulton v. Philadelphia: “You Are Not a Sin”

An Open Letter to the Queer Community in the Wake of Fulton v. Philadelphia: "You Are Not a Sin"

“When the U.S. Supreme Court decided last week in favor of a Catholic social services agency in Philadelphia that refuses to work on adoptions with same-sex couples, many of us in the queer community felt that familiar pang of rejection and dehumanization. … I write primarily to my queer siblings who are everyday assaulted by the damaging messages and practices of religious institutions and people. … While the Supreme Court’s decision may add to the weight of our pain, it does not define who we are as queer people, and we must resist the temptation to carry the burden of shame it suggests. Queer people are of inherent worth and dignity, and our queerness is a reflection of Divine creativity.”