Violence & Harassment

War Profiteering: Children Bear the Brunt of Wars They Don’t Start

I was a refugee during the Cold War, displaced by the geopolitical struggle between the U.S. and the USSR. Like millions of other children from that time, I carried the heavy weight of that war. My family fled Afghanistan, and in the process, I lost years of regular schooling—years that were supposed to form the foundation of my childhood.

The weight of this suffering has always fallen on children. And just as the world once turned away from the children of Auschwitz, Nagasaki and Trảng Bàng, it turns away from children in Gaza, Afghanistan, Sudan and many other places today. We revisit those historical images as if they were warnings, as if by remembering them we could prevent history from repeating itself. But we haven’t learned. The children of today are still carrying the same burdens—only the names and places have changed.

Men in Detention Face Sexual Torture Amid War in Ukraine

The world is seeing “heightened levels of conflict-related sexual violence, fuelled by arms proliferation and increased militarization,” a recent United Nations report notes. Although the vast majority of victims of this crime are women and girls, this kind of violence is also all too common—and severely underreported—among men, boys and people of diverse gender identities.

“Most of the reported incidents against men and boys occurred in detention settings,” the U.N. report states. 

Imagining Revolution and Hope in 2033 America: An Excerpt from ‘Solis’

and

An excerpt from Solis:

In 2033, life in the New American Republic is bleak. A xenophobic and racist government has imprisoned thousands of undocumented people in a giant labor camp in the Arizona desert. Black people, Brown people, Asian people and Indigenous people are dumped on the cage floors, their bodies almost broken and their hearts filled with fear. The prisoners are forced to scavenge for a precious and newly discovered chemical in the surrounding mines. This chemical is being used by the president to control the weather. The climate crisis and global drought has pushed the country to the forefront of the water wars that are ravaging the world. The work is grueling, the torture inhumane. This world seems hopeless.

And yet, in the darkest of places is where the fierce light of revolution ignites.

Keeping Score: Women Stockpile Plan B Post-Election; Feminists React to Trump’s Cabinet Picks; Harriet Tubman Finally Recognized for Military Service

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: Women stockpile emergency contraception and medication abortion after the election; one in five Americans gets news from social media influencers; House Republicans Nancy Mace and Speaker Mike Johnson harass incoming trans Representative Sarah McBride; Michelle Obama explains the double standards Kamala Harris faced; childcare costs more than rent for many families; Trump’s Cabinet picks spread sexist messages; Rep. Erica Lee Carter (D-Texas) became the 95th member of the Democratic Women’s Caucus after winning a special election to replace her late mother Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee; acknowledging Native Women’s Equal Pay Day; Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman was finally recognized for her military service; Trump’s margin over Harris will be about 1.5 points, the fifth-smallest gap since 1900; and more.

Activist Olivia Julianna Talks Repro Rights and Young Women’s Futures on Ms. Magazine’s New Gen Z Podcast

A fair amount of news coverage this election cycle has focused on the Gen Z vote, and for good reason. Besides being the most diverse generation in American history, Generation Z—born between the mid 1990s and the early 2010s—has grown up in a turbulent time in this country, from the rise of school shootings to the COVID-19 pandemic to the first (and soon to be second) Trump presidency and legislative attacks on reproductive freedom.

In The Z Factor’s third episode, host Anoushka Chander interviewed 21-year-old Olivia Julianna, who has advocated for abortion in her home state of Texas. On the podcast, she and Chander delved into the unique worries of young women in America right now and Julianna’s own advocacy work.

The Digital War on Women: Sexualized Deepfakes, Weaponized Data and Stalkerware That Monitors Victims Online

The 2024 U.S. election is over, but the online abuse of women in politics is set to intensify.

Around the world, a growing number of female candidates have been targeted by manipulated explicit content; and while the harm escalates fast, legal recourse is lengthy. Moreover, nearly any system that collects and shares location data can now be weaponized against its users. Digital surveillance can have a devastating impact on women, especially given the lack of robust legal or social protections against gender-based violence. 

Speaker Johnson Announces Anti-Trans Bathroom Ban Throughout U.S. Capitol

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday issued a statement purporting to ban transgender women from women’s restrooms and transgender men from men’s restrooms throughout the Capitol and House office buildings. 

The policy announcement from the Republican House leader was the latest move in a multi-day attack on Sarah McBride, a Democrat elected to represent Delaware in the House who will be the first out transgender member of Congress. The move also comes in the midst of attacks on transgender people more broadly—in legislation and campaigns, and elsewhere—and just weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court is due to hear a major case over the constitutionality of anti-trans laws banning gender-affirming medical care for minors.

Japan’s Far-Right ‘Jokes’ About Forced Hysterectomies as Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook Goes Global

As Americans grapple with the shadow of Trump’s second term, they’d do well to watch what’s happening in Japan, Hungary, Brazil and beyond. When satire is weaponized as a tool for authoritarianism, it’s not just rhetoric—it’s strategy.

Japan’s Conservative Party leader Naoki Hyakuta sparked outrage on a Nov. 11 YouTube broadcast with “solutions” to Japan’s declining birthrate that sound more like a dystopian nightmare than public policy. His proposals—banning women from university after the age of 18, legally preventing women over 25 who are single from ever marrying, and, most chillingly, surgically removing the wombs of women once they turn 30—were framed as “science fiction by a novelist” intended to “spark debate.” But in a country still grappling with gender equality, many Japanese citizens see through the thin veneer of satire. 

The ‘Woman in Charge’: Diane von Furstenberg’s Lifelong Commitment to Empowering Women, Fashion and Philanthropy

Though her fame as a designer came through the success of her iconic wrap dress, Diane von Furstenberg has said, “I don’t think I had a vocation for fashion; I had a vocation to be a woman in charge.”

Towards the end of the exhibit—on display at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles until Aug. 31, 2025—a QR code directs visitors to sign up for her more recent innovation: the “InCharge platform,” which serves as “a place to rally, where we use our connections to help all women be the women they want to be.” Its aim urges women to make “first a commitment to ourselves” by “owning who we are” and then to use the platform to “connect, expand, inspire, and advocate.” It is her latest project in a lifetime of advocacy meant to strengthen women.