Politics

This Week in Women’s Representation: Earth Day 2025; Barbara Lee Wins Oakland Mayor Race with Ranked-Choice Voting; Group of All Men Negotiate Ukraine War

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: The official theme of Earth Day 2025 is “Our Power, Our Planet,” calling for individuals to advocate for climate solutions and renewable energy at every level of government; former U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee won a convincing win in a ranked-choice voting election to become the fourth consecutive woman elected as mayor and the first-ever Black woman mayor; zero women were included in the Ukraine-Russia peace talks; a woman Democrat could replace Sen. Dick Durbin’s seat in Illinois; and more.

Theater in the Time of Trump: Feminist Storytelling Against the Backdrop of Authoritarianism

The Trump administration’s assault on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts continues, with another tranche of staff fired last Friday—employees in its government relations, marketing and social media departments. A prevailing question remains: What does the future of national public theater hold? Will the show(s) go on?

News of the latest job cuts overlapped with the one-year anniversary of opening night of the Broadway show Suffs. Its anniversary got me thinking about the vital role of feminist storytelling against the backdrop of authoritarianism. We know that in a robust democracy, live performance is not merely “nice to have” or an outlet for escape. The ideas to which we are exposed in the theater mean exponentially more: They are a measurement of our collective pulse, a gauge of our collective potential and a glimpse into how much farther forward we might propel (or fall).

With all that in mind, I headed off to Broadway to check out the shows I suspected might smack of such sensibility. With Tony nominations just one week away, here are recommendations for the hottest shows for which pro-democracy viewers can root.

First They Came for Kilmar

After World War II, German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller famously said, “First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.” We are watching this happen in real time with the Trump administration.

Donald Trump has targeted immigrants, such as Kilmar Abrego Garcia, with illegal deportation; then he came after workers’ rights, with cuts to overtime pay and rolling back rights to unionize; then he came for the hungry, with cuts to food programs and Medicaid; then he came for the low-income children, with the elimination of Head Start child care; then he came for the sick, with cuts to funding for medical research; then he came for women, with cuts to reproductive healthcare and funding for domestic violence shelters and rape crisis hotlines; then he came for disabled and elderly people, with cuts to Social Security and Medicare—and so much more.

Trump is boundary testing. If you give him an inch, he will take it all, until he has obliterated all resistance—and our democracy.

The Casualties of Title X Cuts: Cancer Screenings, Fertility Treatments and Sex Ed

The Trump administration earlier this month cut more than $65 million in federal funding for family planning under Title X, the program signed into law by President Richard Nixon that has supported comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services—including contraception, cancer screenings, infertility treatments, pregnancy care and STI testing—for low-income Americans since 1970. The cuts will impact dozens of clinics nationwide, including nine Planned Parenthood affiliates, and leave seven states without any Title X funding—to say nothing of other funding cuts and freezes to social services like Social Security and Medicaid.

In March, Nourbese Flint, president of the national abortion justice organization All* Above All, wrote a piece for Ms. about Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid, which would strip healthcare from millions of Americans, including 40 percent of all pregnant women in the United States. Last week, I spoke with her about the Title X freeze on reproductive healthcare and the long-term effects of these funding cuts, which will put infant and maternal healthcare even more in jeopardy.

Keeping Score: Bill Disenfranchising Women Voters Passes U.S. House, Heads to Senate; Barbara Lee Becomes Mayor of Oakland; Republicans Threaten SNAP and Medicaid

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: Only 34 percent of single women are looking for a relationship, compared to 54 percent of single men; the House passed the SAVE Act which could disenfranchise 69 million married women; Sen. Booker (D-N.J.) broke Senate speech record; Medicaid and SNAP are at risk of cuts; Kilmar Abrego Garcia remains illegally deported and imprisoned, and Trump says “homegrowns” are next; marking Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Equal Pay Day; 13 states have recently introduced bills to improve menopause care; Democratic Women’s Caucus leaders and over 150 House members urged RFK Jr. to restore frozen Title X funding; Georgia dropped charges against Selena Chandler-Scott, who was arrested after being found unconscious and bleeding after a miscarriage; and more.

Trump’s Attack on the Education Department Will Disempower Parents

In a North Carolina coastal community, an elementary school may be forced to end its free monthly dinners where parents come together with teachers to talk about their children’s academic progress, as well as their mental and physical health.

In a rural corner of Texas, local high schools may have to stop participating in a partnership connecting students with local colleges, trade schools and career opportunities—even though parents insist that college and career readiness is the biggest need for their kids.

In Idaho, an elementary school may be forced to stop its after-school program, which parents named as a major help.

These parent-empowering initiatives are now under threat because each of these schools receives federal dollars from the Education Department for their “community school” programs—federal dollars that are now on the chopping block.

‘The Strong Do What They Please’: Dr. Judith Herman on Trump, Trauma and Tyranny

Feminist writers have long argued that there is an intrinsic relationship between patriarchy, rape and colonialism. The seizure of land by force is comparable to the seizure of a woman’s body—and historically rape and war have often gone hand-in-hand. 

In order to get a better understanding of how Donald Trump’s attitudes towards women might be related to his foreign policy, I reached out to Dr. Judith Herman, a world-renowned expert in trauma studies.

“The rules are pretty straightforward: The strong do what they please because they can. The weak submit because they have no other choice. And the bystanders are either complicit or too terrified to intervene, or just don’t care. These are the same rules whether we are talking about international relations or whether we’re talking about intimate personal relations.”

Yes, America Should Make It Easier to Have Kids—But Trump Wants to Punish Childless and Single Women

The Trump administration wants to juice the birthrate. This isn’t surprising: Vice President JD Vance is an ardent pronatalist. So is shadow president Elon Musk, who seems to be working on populating Mars with his own progeny.

Abortion opponents, who make up a solid chunk of Trump’s base, want to see women have more babies whether we like it or not. Republicans and the Christian conservatives who elect them have generally been on the “be fruitful and multiply” side of things.

What’s different this time around, though, is that the Trump team is looking at carrots, not just sticks, in their baby-boom strategy. While the old way was to restrict abortion and make contraception harder to get, some of the proposals now include things like cash for kids, mommy medals, reserving scholarship program spots for young people who are married with children and (somewhat bizarrely) menstrual cycle education so women can figure out when they’re fertile and a national medal for motherhood for women with six or more children.

The administration is also considering policies that would effectively punish people for being single.

‘I Thought Only First Pregnancies Could Go Bad’: When Allie Phillips’ Lawmaker Dismissed Her, She Decided to Run for His Seat

“I decided to meet with my district representative in the state legislature,” said Allie Phillips. Her idea was a bill she’d called “Miley’s Law”—named after the child she’d lost—which would create an exception in Tennessee’s abortion ban allowing for the termination of pregnancies when the fetus has a fatal diagnosis. 

She said the meeting with her lawmaker, Republican Rep. Jeff Burkhart, was disturbing. “I quickly learned that these [Republican] lawmakers don’t know anything about reproductive care. He was confused because I had had a healthy first pregnancy, and then lost my second one. He told me, ‘I thought only first pregnancies could go bad.’”

Burkhart, a 63-year-old father, told Allie he’d set up a meeting for her with the state’s attorney general—but never followed through. 

“After that, my mom said, ‘Maybe you should run against him,’” Allie said. “And then my TikTok followers started to say the same thing.”

Trump’s $20 Problem: What Harriet Tubman’s Absence Tells Us About Power and Prejudice

An excerpt from Jill Elaine Hasday’s latest book, We the Men:

“From the start, women mobilizing for equality have endeavored to enrich and expand America’s dominant stories about itself. But attempts to focus public memory on women have repeatedly faced determined and protracted opposition, for generations and to the present day. 

“Consider the opposition to placing Harriet Tubman’s image on the $20 bill.”