Sports

Democracy Is Not Self-Executing: How We Shape a Better Government Through Laws, Institutions and Culture

PUBLISHED 2/27/2026 by

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!

This week:
—The SAVE Act would block women, young people and low-income people from voting.
—Crowded Illinois primaries call for ranked-choice voting.
—The American women’s hockey team wins gold at the Winter Olympics in Milan.
—An election in Denmark could extend women’s leadership

… and more.

War on Women Report: Kentucky Woman Arrested for Miscarriage; Kansas Anti-Trans Bill Takes Effect; Polls Show Most U.S. Women Disapprove of Trump

PUBLISHED 2/27/2026 by and

MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report:
—Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Delaware abortion provider Debra Lynch, who operates the organization Her Safe Harbor, for allegedly mailing abortion pills into Texas.
—More than a year after seeking medical help for a miscarriage, Deann and Charles Bennett, a young couple in Booneville, Ky., have been arrested for alleged “reckless homicide.”
—Trump’s Department of Justice used the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, intended to protect abortion clinics from harassment, to prosecute journalist Don Lemon for attending an anti-ICE protest.
—The Trump administration withdrew a Biden-era rule that required pharmacies receiving federal funding to carry and dispense mifepristone, misoprostol and methotrexate.
—Arkansas’ near-total abortion ban is facing its first legal challenge since Dobbs. 
—Some good news from Cleveland: The Cleveland City Council passed Tanisha’s Law, creating a Community Crisis Response department to respond to non-violent mental health emergencies with trained, unarmed crisis teams.
—In a landmark victory for survivor accountability, an Arizona jury in Phoenix has ordered Uber to pay $8.5 million to Jaylynn Dean.
—Also in Arizona: Judge Gregory Como struck down several abortion restrictions, ruling them unconstitutional.

… and more.

Keeping Score: Voters Disapprove of Kristi Noem and ICE; Winter Olympics Nears Gender Parity; Challenges to State Abortion Bans Continue

PUBLISHED 2/25/2026 by

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:
—“Kristi Noem sees immigrants like me as subhuman,” says Santiago Mayer, executive director of Voters of Tomorrow.
—A majority of U.S. voters think DHS Secretary Kristi Noem should be removed, and disagree with how ICE is operating.
—Women are 47 percent of athletes at the Winter Olympics in Milan.
—California Gov. Gavin Newsom fired back at threats from Louisiana over abortion protections.
—President Trump appointed no women of color to federal judgeships in his first year in office.
—A new Kansas law introduces a “bounty hunter” aspect to transphobic bathroom bills.
—Some ICE detention facilities and prisons refuse to provide appropriate menstrual products.
—A Kentucky couple was arrested over a year after seeking care for a miscarriage.
—A wave of “common sense” candidates, more than half women, recently won competitive school board races in swing states. Sixty-two percent of “extremist” candidates lost their elections, showing that culture war tactics like book bans may no longer resonate with local voters.

… and more.

A White House Invite, a Punchline—and a Choice for the Men of Team USA

PUBLISHED 2/24/2026 by | UPDATED 2/26/2026 at 7:54 A.M. PT

Both the U.S. women’s and men’s ice hockey teams won gold at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Yet, within hours of defeating Canada, only the U.S. men’s hockey team received a congratulatory call from President Donald Trump and an invitation to the White House.

What should have been a routine celebration of athletic excellence instead became a revealing cultural moment. 

After extending the invitation, the president joked, “I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” adding that he would “probably be impeached” if they were not invited. Laughter followed.

Some have dismissed the comment as harmless—just a joke, just locker room talk, boys being boys. But humor has long been one of the ways inequalities sustains itself. Framed as harmless, softened by laughter and repeated often enough, it teaches audiences what is acceptable and what feels risky to challenge.

When women’s inclusion becomes a punchline, the triumph no longer belongs equally to everyone it represents.

The Intensity and Perfectionism That Drive Olympic Athletes Also Put Them at High Risk for Eating Disorders

PUBLISHED 2/18/2026 by

Olympians—athletes at the top of their sport and in prime health—are idolized and often viewed as superhuman. These athletes spend their lives focusing on building physical strength through rigorous training and diets that are honed to provide the nutrients necessary to excel at their sport.

However, athletes are at considerable risk for eating disorders and having an unhealthy relationship with food and their bodies.

Lindsey Vonn Redefines The Limits of Possibility 

PUBLISHED 2/18/2026 by

Last Sunday, I woke before dawn to watch 41-year-old ski legend Lindsey Vonn race Olympic downhill at the Milano Cortina Games—the oldest woman ever to start the event and the first to do so with a knee replacement. Nearly seven years after retiring, she returned to the Olympic start gate with a torn ACL and decades of accumulated injuries, propelled by the same resolve that once made her the most decorated female alpine skier in history.

As I watched her charge down the course, cheered on by teammates, family and a global audience, I found myself asking the same question reverberating across sports media: Could she once again defy the limits imposed on her body, her age and her ambition?

When Vonn crashed seconds into the run, the reaction revealed just how persistent those limits still are. While elite skiers—men and women alike—routinely crash when pushing for hundredths of a second, her fall was framed by some as proof that a 41-year-old injured woman had overreached, rather than as the calculated risk that defines downhill racing. What moved me most wasn’t just the loss of a potential medal but the familiar scrutiny that followed: critiques of her age, her body and her decision to try at all. Her return alone had already stretched what we imagine is possible for women in sport. The fall, though painful to witness, underscored something more enduring—her insistence on defining her own limits in a world still unsettled when women refuse to accept theirs.

Ms. Global: Iranian Women’s Resistance, Gaza’s Reproductive Care Crisis and More

PUBLISHED 2/11/2026 by

The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.

This week: stories from Iran, Gaza, the International Olympic Committee, and more.

Olympians on Olympians: Women Athletes Honor the Trailblazers Who Made Today’s Games Possible

PUBLISHED 2/10/2026 by

Organizers of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics are touting “the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games in history,” reflecting years of pressure from athletes who have questioned why women and men do not always have the same number of events or chances to participate.

These gains did not happen on their own—they are the result of sustained advocacy by women athletes who have pushed the International Olympic Committee to expand women’s participation, add events, and commit to gender equity in both athlete quotas and medal opportunities. Even as parity edges closer, competitors and supporters continue to call out the remaining gaps—keeping the pressure on Olympic leadership to deliver full equality across all sports.

Women’s and Girls’ Wrestling Is Ready for Its Modern Era

PUBLISHED 12/26/2025 by and

Women’s and girls’ wrestling has grown considerably in the U.S. since the late ’80s. After the sport’s debut at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, more and more girls began joining high school wrestling teams as more high schools began making teams for girls.

Although the sport carries a long history, women’s wrestling is now more popular than it’s ever been. The sport seeks to create community after being ignored for many years, and will be featured at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. It will be in that moment in Los Angeles, under the Olympic flame, that women’s and girls’ wrestling will close the chapter of its trailblazing journey and launch into a modern era.