More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Brenda VanLengen is a TV sports analyst and play-by-play announcer for college women’s sports. “I’m so fortunate that [Title IX] happened when it did,” she told Ms. Without it, she explained, “I wouldn’t have the life that I do or the career that I do.”
This year, she’s embarked on a new venture to produce a docuseries about the women who grew the sport of women’s basketball before Title IX, If Not for Them.
At least 30 massage therapists accused Deshaun Watson of unwanted sexual aggression during their sessions with him. To this day, Watson has shown absolutely no remorse or even understanding that what he did was wrong. But rather than suspending him for the entire 2022 season, as the NFL had wanted, Robinson issued a six-game suspension. Six games and he has to get all future massages from team therapists.
While the NFL’s disciplinary officer Sue L. Robinson said Watson’s conduct was “egregious” but “nonviolent,” there’s a short runway between ejaculating on people without their consent and escalating behaviors. Robinson’s decision is a slap on the wrist that feels like a slap in the face to women, sexual assault survivors, and sports fans who believe that the way you win is just as important as the victory.
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.
The War on Women was in full force under the Trump administration. While the battle may look different today, we are staying vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching.
This week: the United States Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade; sexism and racism enter the Jan. 6 Attack hearings; FINA bans transgender women from participating in women’s swimming competitions; and more.
As we mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX, landmark legislation that enabled girls and women to participate fully in interscholastic sports, I regret that I never met Toni Stone.
Unfamiliar with the name? I’m not surprised. Instead, my editors directed me to write articles about a white, San Francisco 49ers football player whose injuries they always deemed headline news. In a rarity for a 1980s Black woman reporter, I once interviewed, at home plate, then-Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda. In hindsight, I would have gladly traded the experience for a chat with Toni Stone.
When Title IX was passed 50 years ago this month, it helped girls gain access to spaces that they were not able to enter.
In my own family, Title IX changed the course of the lives of my activist grandmother, Silicon Valley executive aunt and my student-athlete cousin.
In late May, the GOP Study Committee, the largest group of right-wing lawmakers on the Hill, introduced a so-called “Women’s Bill of Rights” (WBOR) in the House. Far from a comprehensive plan to promote gender equity, the bill does not affirm any rights for women other than the “right” for cisgender women to exclude transgender women from gender-affirming spaces.
The WBOR’s co-sponsor is the 501(c)(3) Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) and its 501(c)(4) action arm, the Independent Women’s Voice (IWV), which have long opposed the Equal Rights Amendment, paid family and medical leave, and countless other measures that would improve the lives of millions of American women and girls.
The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team announced a deal that guarantees women and men who play for the national teams will receive the same compensation opportunities. While feminists and USWNT fans celebrated the decision, not unexpectedly, misogynists came roaring back with cries of “Unfair!” “Wokeness!” “Biology!”
It seems a number of men on the internet are outraged by the very suggestion that women athletes might be deserving of equal pay.
Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson recently signed a huge five-year contract for $230 million, even though he faces 22 civil lawsuits from women alleging sexual assault and abuse.
Children and adolescents often identify strongly with their sports heroes, clinging to their every word on social media, wanting to play like them, dress like them, and act like them. For this reason, it is especially important that the male sports culture—one of the most influential bastions of patriarchal privilege—takes a bold and unflinching approach to star athletes who have perpetrated sexual violence. The powerful message this sends to kids and adults is that men’s sexual violence against women is not “normal,” and will not be tolerated.
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 in this biweekly round-up.
This week: Spanish Cabinet approves paid sick leave for employees with menstrual pain; Lisa Cook becomes first Black woman on Federal Reserve board; baby formula shortage concerns U.S. parents; Oklahoma and Louisiana advance unprecedented abortion bans; Taliban dissolves nation’s human rights commission; American voters support upholding Roe v. Wade; America left reeling after back-to-back mass shootings; and more.
