Why Marie Kondo Failed to Spark Permanent Joy

Domestic work in America has been a long-time battleground between the sexes. Further complicating the issue is that women and women of color make up a majority of domestic workers: 90.2 percent are women and 51.3 percent are Black, Hispanic, or Asian American and Pacific Islander. There is no honest and accurate way to talk about housework and childcare without also discussing the negative effects on women.

One day, perhaps the world will act as though domestic work is a collective responsibility and effort that requires no self-help books, a product line or a Netflix series.

Thirty Years After the FMLA, Lawmakers Must Guarantee Paid Leave for People Facing Violence

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The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) signed into law 30 years ago this week was the first time our country’s laws recognized that working people are also family caregivers and human beings who face illness themselves. But the FMLA was not enough, then or now.

Currently, leave is not available to people facing domestic and sexual violence if they need time off to go to court or seek other protections or support, which can cost them their jobs. Every state must consider adopting what is known as safe leave — leave for a worker subjected to sexual or domestic violence to seek a restraining order, relocate to safety, or take other protective measures — or help a close family member do so. This leave must also be paid.

U.S. Senators Urge FDA Update to Mifepristone Label for Miscarriage Use: ‘Patients Should Have Access to the Most Effective Medication Available’

For years doctors have prescribed mifepristone off label for miscarriage treatment, a practice allowable by the FDA. But now, new state bans and restrictions on medication abortion has raised concerns that prescribing mifepristone could lead to criminal prosecution of healthcare providers. Reproductive health advocates are now urging the FDA to specifically label mifepristone for miscarriage treatment.

“Patients experiencing an early miscarriage should have access to the most effective medication available.”

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Women in Congress Lead Committees That Control U.S. Spending; Celebrating Suffragists of Color

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

This week: The leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are all women, as is the top White House budget official—the first-ever all-women team to lead the congressional committees that control government spending; new research about women of color involved in the suffrage movement; the power of knitting; and more.

Florida’s Rejection of African American Studies Reflects the Historical Fight for Black Education

Florida officials have rejected a new Advanced Placement (AP) course on African American studies, calling it “woke indoctrination” that “significantly lacks educational value.” But the modern figures and movements that the state board objects to are extensions of Black history. That history is the story of Black activism, the ongoing, centuries-old struggle for rights and freedoms in the United States—and African American studies as a field is itself rooted in that effort. 

“We have the potential of raising an entire generation of Black children who will not be able to see themselves represented in their own state or in education.”

New Film Documents Campaign for Universal Abortion Pill Access in the U.S.

“The film did a brilliant job of telling the stories of people who need abortions and the efforts of activists and providers trying to meet that need,” said Plan C co-director Elisa Wells. “The film shows the harm that abortion restrictions are causing people and the possibility of a different solution that hasn’t been well known in the past, which is telehealth and abortion pills.”

Our Abortion Stories: ‘My Abortion Was the Beginning of Getting My Life Back’

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Last summer, the Supreme Court overturned the longstanding precedents of Roe v. Wade, representing the largest blow to women’s constitutional rights in history. A series from Ms., Our Abortion Stories chronicles readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post-Roe. Abortions are sought by a wide range of people, for many different reasons. There is no single story.

Share your abortion story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com.