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. 

Keeping Score: Court Blocks Student Loan Relief Plan; Former N.Y. Cop Sentenced 10 Weekends in Jail After Child Rape; Trump’s ‘Tampon Tim’ Jab Backfires

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: Kamala Harris reaffirmed her candidacy for president at the DNC; Republican-appointed judges strike down Biden’s student loan relief plan; a new law bans women from speaking in public in Afghanistan; working moms earn just 71 cents per dollar earned by dads; understanding the orgasm gap; gold-medalist boxer Imane Khelif fights back against racist and sexist abuse; new reproductive rights bills signed into law in Illinois; and more.

I’m a Queer Nurse, Pick Me Up at the Abortion Clinic

As a gay woman, abortion wasn’t something I thought about too often; but the lawmakers in my home state were villainizing and legislating abortion the same way they villainized and disenfranchised the LGBTQ+ community, so I figured it was my turn to be an ally. 

As of this month, 22 states have banned some or all abortions. If you’re like me and your home state has closed your local abortion clinic—well they’re probably anti-LGBTQ too, and this is your call to get involved: to volunteer, donate and fight abortion stigma wherever you can. But if you’re a queer person with a nursing license looking for somewhere to work where you can be yourself and make a profound impact, check to see if your local abortion clinic is hiring.

New Taliban Law Mandates Afghan Women Be Silent and Completely Covered in Public. It’s Time to Codify Gender Apartheid.

Afghan women’s voices and bodies are deemed ‘intimate’ by the Taliban and banned from public.

While the international community condemns these brutal and oppressive restrictions, it now faces a critical challenge: how to effectively respond to the Taliban’s gender apartheid policies and increasing human rights abuses. The need for the international community to codify gender apartheid as a crime against humanity grows more urgent.

Promise Keepers Revival? The Ms. Q&A With Jackson Katz on the Trump-Era Resurgence of the Largest Organized Men’s Movement

In the 1990s, Promise Keepers were an evangelical group of Christian men who pledged to keep their promises to their wives and children in exchange for female submission and service. Relatively apolitical at the time, Promise Keepers even pledged to work toward “racial reconciliation.”

Filling football stadiums, evangelical men and boys felt safe to cry and hug, while reaffirming each other’s masculinity and entitlement to male dominance. By the end of the 1990s, Promise Keepers had faded from the headlines, but now thirty years later they are staging a revival. 

Ms. sat down with Jackson Katz to get his take on the Promise Keepers revival. “Elements on the Trumpist right understand very well that right-wing, white evangelical men are an incredibly important constituency within the larger MAGA coalition. … The ‘crisis in masculinity’ has now become a crisis in democracy.”

Another Reason Project 2025 Is So Bad for Women? Guns.

If implemented, Project 2025 would be devastating for women, families and feminists everywhere. Voters—particularly women voters—need to understand these threats.

But while Project 2025’s abortion and LGBTQ+ rights plans have rightfully garnered outrage, there’s another, lesser-known threat to women, families and communities buried within these pages: a radical “guns everywhere” agenda.

The Feminist Fight for Gender Equity: Lisa Ann Walter and Advocates Renew Push for ERA Ahead of 2024 Elections

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, the battle to restore abortion rights has been front and center. Less visible are efforts to enshrine women’s equality into the Constitution—the continuation of a campaign that conservatives thought they killed more than 40 years ago. Not true.

Champions of the ERA have been working tirelessly to get Congress to publish the 101-year-old measure that would ban gender-based discrimination. Although women have made considerable strides over the last century, a constitutional right is the only guarantee they will make further gains and keep them in perpetuity.

Decisions Belong to the Pregnant Teen: Montana Court Strikes Down State’s Parental Consent Act

The Supreme Court of Montana used state constitutional grounds to strike down the Consent Act, which required minors to obtain parental consent for an abortion. The court’s analysis of these justifications determined that they were clearly intended to obfuscate the antiabortion animus behind the Consent Law.

Having revealed the baselessness of the underlying justifications for discriminating against teens who choose abortion over childbirth, it becomes readily apparent that these are antiabortion laws—plain and simple—that aim to divest teens of control over this reproductive choice.