Category: Education

Keeping Score: Childcare Costs Top Pre-Pandemic Levels; Sharp Rise in Texas Maternal Mortality; Oct. 3 Marks Latina Equal Pay Day

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: a Georgia judge strikes down the state’s six-week abortion ban; JD Vance and Tim Walz debate; childcare costs rise after pandemic-era grants expire; Senate Republicans again block IVF protections; school superintendants are overwhelmingly male; Kentucky governor bans conversion therapy; nonbinary adults face violence and discrimination at work; Aisha Nyandoro, founding CEO of Springboard to Opportunities, is on the TIME 100 Next list; University of Pennsylvania professor Dorothy Roberts (host of the Ms. podcast Torn Apart) has won a prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius” award; and more.

Children’s Interests, Ambitions and Skills Can Be Shaped Early On. The Toy Industry Has a Role to Play.

I recently had the honor of attending a roundtable meeting at The White House for toy and children’s entertainment leaders. As one of the organizers, our agenda included discussing initiatives to elevate inclusivity in the play space and break down gender stereotypes. The passion of female corporate leaders was apparent as we discussed how play helps children learn and develop a variety of skills: the importance of storytelling that allows kids to see themselves as they are, not how they are stereotyped, and the need for more diverse options in toys. Being “relegated to the sidelines” doesn’t start in our teens and twenties; it begins the moment a girl can hold a toy or book or watch a screen.

Not a ‘Groom,’ but ‘Grooming’: It’s Past Time to End Child Marriage in the United States

There’s no romance in being a child bride. And whether the “groom” is R. Kelly, with his marriage to 15-year-old Aaliyah, your great-grandmother, or Justine (name changed for protection)—a minor married to a man twice her age in the state of Maryland—more often than not, these marriages are a form of child abuse … government-sanctioned child abuse, in some states.

Child marriage remains legal in well over half of all U.S. states, with over 300,000 minors married between 2000 and 2018. Every year, hundreds of children of every gender, ethnicity and religious background are married, with no regard for their consent. “Groom” might be the technical term in these marriages, but “grooming” is more accurate.

Florida Just Banned Sex Ed in Public Schools. Project 2025 Calls for the Same Ban *Nationwide.*

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If you don’t live in Florida, you may be inclined to distance yourself from the news that they just banned public school districts from teaching sex education—including lessons on consent, HIV transmission, abuse prevention, and the existence of LGBTQ+ people.

But this is not a “Florida problem”—it’s a national preview. Because Project 2025 calls for a federal ban on sex education too. It’s just hidden, snuck in as part of their ban on pornography. 

Misogynist Manifesto: Project 2025’s Plans to Gut Women’s Rights in the Workplace and Classroom

Part two of a three-part series about the 900-plus-page right-wing “misogynistic manifesto”:

Project 2025 eviscerates women’s long-held rights to sex equality in the workplace. Its plans for women students and workers would devastate their educational opportunities, harming their careers and earning power. 

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

What’s Old Is New: How Can New Voices Advance the Realm of Education?

Emily Wilson, a classicist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, made history as the first woman to translate Homer’s The Odyssey into English. Her groundbreaking translations offer a fresh lens through which to view these ancient texts.

Wilson’s work challenges long-held interpretations and underscores the value of diverse voices in literature—especially as U.S. education is under fire by conservative politicians and organizations.

It’s Not Easy to Be the First … or the Thousandth

As I’ve answered interviewers’ questions, I’ve noticed myself saying things like: “I was surprised how difficult it was to be a woman in seminary, even at a seminary that’s fully committed to supporting women in ministry.” I’ve come to realize that of course it’s still difficult to be a woman in these spaces. Of course it’s still hard—even after many decades, even after hundreds or even thousands of women have walked this path before me—because the reality is that the roads were not built with us in mind. They were not shaped to fit us. So many different intricacies and twists and turns and building materials went into making these paths, all of which are more difficult to navigate for those who were not their original intended walkers.

New College of Florida Destroys Gender Studies Books

On Jan. 6, 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis orchestrated a rightwing takeover of New College of Florida in Sarasota, the state’s only public liberal honors arts college. DeSantis appointed six new members to the college’s board of trustees who promptly voted to eliminate the diversity, equity and inclusion office and the gender studies program.

On August 15, administration at New College of Florida in Sarasota destroyed hundreds of books that had been housed in the Gender and Diversity Center on campus, placing them in a huge dumpster for disposal.