—President Trump lost his latest appeal effort against paying New York writer E. Jean Carroll an $83.3 million defamation judgment after denying he sexually assaulted her and calling her a liar
Violence & Harassment
How Punjabi Sikh Advocates Reimagined Domestic Violence Risk Assessment
As another domestic violence homicide-by-strangulation in the Punjabi Sikh community went largely unreported outside the community itself, we are reminded of how often opportunities for intervention are missed. Those misses stem not only from systemic biases, but also from a lack of community-specific knowledge and cultural humility among service providers. When domestic violence research and prevention efforts rely on broad assumptions or one-size-fits-all frameworks, they risk overlooking the complex realities of survivors whose experiences are shaped by family, community and systemic pressures.
At Sikh Family Center, we encountered these limitations firsthand while working with the widely used Danger Assessment tool and its later adaptation for immigrant women. Questions about who qualifies as an “immigrant,” differing scoring systems and the omission of key risk factors often created confusion rather than clarity. When a risk-assessment tool does not reflect survivors’ lived realities—or appears to make assumptions about their identities—it becomes less persuasive and less effective in helping them make life-changing decisions.
That experience led us to develop the Danger Assessment for Sikh Women, a tool created alongside Punjabi Sikh survivors and their families. By incorporating community-specific vulnerabilities, protective factors and culturally relevant questions, the assessment aims to improve safety planning while helping survivors recognize both the risks they face and the support systems available to them.
The lesson extends far beyond one community: Domestic violence prevention strategies must remain flexible, humble and responsive if they are to reach survivors whose experiences fall outside conventional assumptions.
Survivors of Torture Rewrite the Rules Banning It
There is no shortage of cases of torture in the headlines. Across today’s crises—from Ukraine to Sudan, Myanmar to Gaza—the allegations are graphic and devastating. But once a legal case closes or the news cycle moves on, another story begins: What happens to those who survive torture?
As U.N. special rapporteur on torture, I have met survivors around the world who carry its effects long after the physical wounds have healed. Survivors spoke to me about stigma, economic struggles, permanent disabilities, fractured relationships and the exhausting fight to be believed, gain access to care and secure justice. Too often, torture is treated as an event that ends when the abuse stops. That is far from survivors’ realities.
That is why survivors themselves helped create the first global Charter of Rights for Victims and Survivors of Torture and other cruelty—a framework demanding access to specialized healthcare, long-term psychological support, legal recognition, financial stability and meaningful involvement in shaping the laws and systems that affect their lives.
The Trump Administration Isn’t Just Ignoring Violence Against Abortion Clinics—It Wants to Fund It
The numbers are staggering: Between 2024 and 2025, death threats against abortion providers more than doubled. Stalking incidents more than doubled. Clinic blockades surged by 500 percent. There were four arsons. A planned assassination attempt against a Montana provider. And in the background of all of it, a federal government that has made unmistakably clear whose side it’s on.
Now, in an unprecedented move, the Trump Administration may be about to start writing checks to fund violent extremists. As part of a settlement to resolve his $10 billion lawsuit against his own Department of the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the creation of a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” The Fund is framed as compensation for people who claim they were targeted by politically motivated prosecutions under previous administrations, excluding Republican administrations.
Where to Watch ‘Ask E. Jean,’ a New Documentary on the Wit, Fury and Fearlessness of E. Jean Carroll
E. Jean Carroll—the colorful author and advice columnist who beat Donald Trump in court twice—is finally getting the documentary treatment in Ask E. Jean, a film that is as poignant as it is entertaining.
Director Ivy Meeropol first reached out to Carroll after reading the devastating yet vibrant New York Magazine piece in which Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room decades earlier.
Carroll’s initial response: “I’d rather eat my shoe.”
But Meeropol persisted, eventually convincing Carroll she wanted to tell the fuller story of her life—not just the trials, but her remarkable rise during the heyday of glossy magazines and New York media culture.
The resulting film traces Carroll’s evolution from Indiana cheerleader to professionally fabulous Manhattan raconteur, weaving together archival footage, legal depositions and deeply personal interviews.
Some of the documentary’s most powerful moments come from previously unseen deposition footage, where Carroll recounts the 1996 assault while enduring invasive questioning from Trump attorney Alina Habba. Even in those moments, Carroll remains irrepressibly funny.
Meeropol says the footage reveals “what really happens when someone who’s brought a charge of rape or sexual abuse is deposed,” while also exposing the broader misogyny women confront “from the minute we’re born.”
Meeropol also describes struggling against “The Trump Effect”—fear within the entertainment industry about supporting projects that could provoke retaliation from Trump or his allies. Distributors hesitated, some producers reportedly asked not to be credited, and the film was repeatedly stalled despite strong festival reviews.
But Ask E. Jean is now expanding into theaters nationwide, bringing Carroll’s story to audiences at a moment when the politics of gender, power and public accountability remain impossible to ignore.
Ms. Global: From Ukraine to Lebanon to Sudan, Women Are Bearing the Brunt of Escalating Global Conflict
Around the world, escalating armed conflict, political repression and humanitarian collapse are reshaping daily life for women and girls—often with devastating consequences. From drone warfare in Sudan, to internet blackouts in Iran, to attacks on healthcare infrastructure in Lebanon and Gaza, women are navigating intensifying threats while also sustaining families, communities and survival networks under extraordinary strain. At the same time, women-led organizations and feminist movements confronting these crises increasingly face funding cuts, political repression and shrinking civic space even as demand for their work grows.
Globally, over 676 million women and girls live within 50 kilometers of armed conflict, representing about 17 percent of the female population. This staggering figure—a 74 percent increase since 2010—is tracked and analyzed by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security in partnership with PRIO.
But we also know: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the world’s most urgent crises. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide—and the gendered realities shaping conflict, displacement, political repression and survival.
Male Supremacism and Misogyny Was Central to the San Diego Mosque Shooting. Why Did So Much Coverage Miss It?
Despite the extensive misogyny in both shooters’ manifestos, much of the reporting on the San Diego mosque shooting overlooked how male supremacism intersected with xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and white supremacist ideology. Both shooters identified the perpetrators of the 2014 Santa Barbara mass killing and the 1989 Montreal massacre among their inspirations, while one referred to violent attackers as “incel saints” and described himself as deeply involved in online incel culture.
The manifestos move fluidly between misogyny, anti-Semitism and racist conspiracies, portraying women as “evil,” using dehumanizing incel slurs and framing immigrants, Black people and LGBTQ people as existential threats.
These ideologies are not separate strands of extremism, but part of a broader supremacist worldview rooted in dehumanization and entitlement.
Coverage of extremist violence often struggles to grapple with these intersections, isolating one ideology while minimizing the central role of misogyny and anti-feminist conspiracism. The shooters’ lengthy involvement in misogynist online communities also underscores the growing radicalization of young men online—and the urgent need for prevention strategies that begin long before violence occurs.
May 21 Virtual Event: Tackling Patriarchy and Power (With Anna Malaika Tubbs, Aisha Becker-Burrowes and Danielle Robay)
The Feminist Majority Foundation and Ms. have partnered with Women’s Foundation California to invite you to a national virtual conversation with Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs that turns our attention toward the system that has kept us from achieving true democracy for the last 250 years: patriarchy.
Drawing from her latest book (and New York Times best-seller) Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us, Tubbs traces the ruthless logic that has organized American life for 250 years—always bound to race, always rooted in a binary that decides who counts and who does not.
The event is Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. PT / 7:30 CT / 8:30 ET. RSVP today!
Tubbs will be joined in conversation by Aisha Becker-Burrowes, co-founder and co-executive director of FEMINIST—a nonprofit media company serving a global community of over 6 million—and interviewed by TV host, journalist and content creator, Danielle Robay.
Men’s Silence Is Fueling a National Crisis of Violence Against Women
In just the past month, the U.S. has seen a relentless drumbeat of male-perpetrated violence: mass shootings at social gatherings, a string of urban gun deaths, and one of the deadliest incidents in years: A Louisiana man killed eight children—including seven of his own—and wounded their mothers in a domestic violence massacre. Then there’s the multi-year investigation into sexual assault allegations involving United Farm Workers cofounder César Chávez, along with the political fallout surrounding former U.S. Reps. Tony Gonzales and Eric Swalwell.
This is a call to action for men. Nearly a decade after #MeToo emerged, reports of abuse by powerful men continue to surface at alarming rates.
How can so many of us stay silent in the face of an ongoing epidemic of men’s sexual and domestic assaults against women—including rape? Enough is enough. We have to do better.
Breaking that code is essential. It means men calling each other out in locker rooms, workplaces, offices and private conversations. It means redefining loyalty not as protecting other men, but as protecting those harmed.
The question is no longer whether we understand the problem. The question is whether we men are finally willing to confront it in ourselves.
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Keeping Score: Supreme Court Blow to Voting Rights Will ‘Silence Our Voices’; Conservative Judges Try to Restrict Mifepristone; Moms Worry About Putting Food on the Table
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:
—The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, slashing protections against racially discriminatory voting laws.
—A record high amount of books were censored from libraries in 2025, often due to LGBTQ characters or plotlines addressing racism.
—A third of moms living on low incomes have gone into debt or skipped meals so their kids could eat.
—Just 22 percent of American voters have significant confidence in the Supreme Court.
—In 2025 the number of abortions in the U.S. remained stable, but more patients in states with bans turned to telehealth services instead of traveling out of state.
—The Department of Justice announced plans to expand the use of the federal death penalty.
—An Epstein-Maxwell survivor, who asked to remain anonymous, laments, “I kept my identity protected as Jane Doe. I woke up one day with my name mentioned over 500 times. While the rich and powerful remain protected by redaction, my name was exposed to the world.”
—The Trump administration launched a Moms.gov site on Mother’s Day that refers pregnant people to unregulated crisis pregnancy centers.
—A Ms. piece on solitary confinement by Kwaneta Harris and her daughter Summer Knight won Kwaneta second place in the Collaboration category of the Stillwater Awards for prison journalism.
—Liberation, a play about 1970s feminism by Bess Wohl, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. It was also nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. Wohl was inspired by her own life: Her mother, Lisa Cronin Wohl, was an early Ms. contributor.
… and more.