Dr. George Tiller: A Man Who Trusted Women (Summer 2009)

Dr. George Tiller was an abortion provider—one of only three in the U.S. who provided abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy. On May 31, 2009, Tiller was assassinated by an anti-abortion extremist while serving as an usher at his church in Wichita, Kansas. He was known for mantras like “Trust women,” “I’m a woman-educated physician,” and “Attitude is everything.”

From the Summer 2009 issue of Ms. magazine: “Dr. George Tiller planned to be a dermatologist. He could have led a comfortable, secure life with his wife, Jeanne, their four children and, ultimately, their 10 grandchildren. Instead, Tiller decided to enlist in what shouldn’t be—but is—one of the most perilous jobs in the United States: women’s reproductive healthcare.”

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.

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.)

In India, Married Couples Teach the Next Generation About Contraception and Family Planning

Across India’s Bihar and Maharastra states, married couples are joining together to reach young couples with modern contraception.

“Initially, when we went to villages,” said Mithlesh, “we weren’t even allowed to enter. They thought we were here to sterilize people. So, we developed a strategy, to communicate with key leaders in the communities. We discussed what we were doing, that we were there to share information and provide family planning options. The leaders listened, and supported our efforts.”

In Praise of Badass Super Mamas (Summer 2008)

From the Summer 2008 issue of Ms. magazine:

The summer of 1973 was the season of the supermama: kickass Black women such as Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson, who starred in big-screen “Blaxploitation” action films.

The cultural nostalgia for Blaxploitation has never really died. And at the movies in recent years, Black women continue to be underrepresented among the latest kick-butt heroes. Yet my hope for new supermamas survives. The screen and action cinema not only have room for Black women—but need them.

(For more iconic, ground-breaking stories like this, pre-order 
50 YEARS OF Ms.: THE BEST OF THE PATHFINDING MAGAZINE THAT IGNITED A REVOLUTION (Alfred A. Knopf)—a collection of the most audacious, norm-breaking coverage Ms. has published.)

In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: The Creativity of Black Women in the South (May 1974)

From the May 1974 issue of Ms. magazine:

“What did it mean for a Black woman to be an artist in our grandmothers’ time? It is a question with an answer cruel enough to stop the blood. … How was the creativity of the Black woman kept alive, year after year and century after century, when for most of the years Black people have been in America, it was a punishable crime for a Black person to read or write? … The agony of the lives of women who might have been Poets, Novelists, Essayists and Short Story Writers, who died with their real gifts stifled within them.”

What Is a Woman’s Novel? For That Matter, What Is a Man’s? (August 1986)

From the August 1986 issue of Ms.:

“Men’s novels are about men. Women’s novels are about men too, but from a different point of view. You can have a men’s novel with no women in it, except possibly the landlady or the horse, but you can’t have a women’s novel with no men in it.”

“Men’s novels are about how to get power. Killing and so on, or winning and so on. So are women’s novels, though the method is different. In men’s novels, getting the woman or women goes along with getting the power. It’s a perk, not a means. In women’s novels, you get the power by getting the man.”

What Will the Supreme Court Decide Next?: Ms. Magazine Spring Issue Explores

In the Spring 2023 issue of Ms., contributing editor Carrie Baker examines how the legal reasoning used in Dobbs could erode women’s rights beyond abortion.

In the face of these threats, experts point to the Equal Rights Amendment as a potential avenue to fight back. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get the Spring issue delivered straight to your mailbox!