Building Strong Homes and Businesses: Empowering Cherokee Women Founders Through Access to Capital

Under 2 percent of women founders receive venture funding, and it’s not getting better, according to Lesley Robinson, director of education at the Ayana Foundation. Venture capital funding for Indigenous Native American women is significantly lower: just .0013 percent of venture capital funding.

The University of Tulsa Cherokee Women’s AcceleratHER Fellowship is working to change that.

“[It’s] not just understanding who you are as a founder and really focusing on the business, but really more about the identity and intersectionality of who you are. Then having this really beautiful, intentional, impactful handshake in the Cherokee Nation, and then the resources as a business woman that you can begin to cultivate from there,” said Robinson. 

Keeping Score: More Attacks on Trans Rights; Sexual Assault Should Disqualify Cabinet Nominees, Americans Say; Female Professors Win Lawsuit and Backpay for Pay Disparity

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 considers a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for trans teens; data shows crimes in public restrooms and changing rooms are extremely rare, and are not decreased by laws preventing trans people from using public bathrooms; analyzing Trump’s cabinet nominees; midwives say climate change is harming their communities; Nevada maintains a majority woman legislature; criminal justice reform for probation, parole and bail is critical; Arizona moves to end 15-week abortion ban; Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal have asked the Biden administration to limit the federal government from deploying troops domestically; and more.

Close the Gender Giving Gap: Women Need More Charitable Support in Wake of the Election

Despite widespread recognition of gender-based violence, U.S. voters elected a president who a jury held accountable for sexual abuse and who openly disparages women—at once sending a chilling message to survivors and emboldening their abusers. Just days after the election, we heard from a survivor who reported that her boyfriend told her he could do […]

Rest in Power: Nikki Giovanni, the Angel of Black Poetry

Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni Jr.—poet, writer, feminist and civil rights activist and educator—has died. Born June 7, 1943 , Giovanni was the author of more than 25 books and subject of the award-winning 2023 documentary Going to Mars.

A poem written in her honor:

“Nikki Giovanni,

Black poetic angel extraordinaire

who wrote to us

and for us;

gave us Black folk,

and the world,

a legacy of words

that exuded courage:

words of truthtelling

words of Black magic

words of inspiration

words of your life

words of your vision

words of love

for us,

your global Black community.”

In the Ms. Winter Issue, We’re Rolling Up Our Sleeves

Now what? That’s what feminists have been wondering since we lost the bright promise of a Kamala Harris presidency on Nov. 5.

We asked Ms. contributing editor Carrie Baker to point the way. For the upcoming issue, she spoke to some of the many leaders and organizations preparing to safeguard decades of hard-fought gains for women and girls, now threatened by the Trump administration and its Project 2025. What she uncovered is a fierce resistance ready to defend our rights at the federal level—and creatively expand equality protections in the states.

All this and so much more awaits you in the Ms. Winter 2025 issue. And, for a limited time, you can get a year of Ms. for just $20—a 43 percent discount from our usual price!

A Second Trump Term Could Worsen Inequalities for Women Student-Athletes

Since 1972, when Title IX was signed into law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex by any educational program receiving federal financial assistance, colleges and universities have faced questions about what constitutes “discrimination” under the statute, specifically in the universe of college athletics.

Now, 52 years after the law was passed, the Department of Education is under threat by the incoming presidential administration at a crucial time for Title IX enforcement, as new NCAA policies could spell a threat to gender equality in the college sports space even as female student-athletes continue to gain visibility and marketability.

‘Significant Victory’: Ninth Circuit Court Mixed Ruling ‘Frees Idahoans to Talk With Pregnant Minors About Abortion’

In April of 2023, Idaho passed the nation’s first abortion “trafficking” law (travel ban) making it a crime to procure an abortion for a minor. The law was challenged by reproductive rights advocates, who argued that the legislature had created a statute that makes unclear when lawful mentoring support stops, and unlawful conduct begins. Agreeing with the plaintiffs, in November of 2023, a federal district court issued a preliminary injunction preventing the law from going into effect.

On Dec. 2, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a mixed decision in the case. Although not a complete win, as Wendy Heipt of Legal Voice, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs put it: The “decision is a significant victory … as it frees Idahoans to talk with pregnant minors about abortion healthcare.” 

“Encouragement, counseling, and emotional support are plainly protected speech under Supreme Court precedent,” wrote the Ninth Circuit Court last week, “including when offered in the difficult context of deciding whether to have an abortion.”

Mifepristone Access, and What Comes Next for the Medication Abortion Drug

The future of mifepristone access is up in the air on multiple fronts right now—just five months after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s treatment of the medication abortion drug.

Now, though, Donald Trump has won election to the presidency—and questions about what his new administration will do to federal policy surrounding the drug are front and center.

Iraq’s Planned Child Marriage Bill Threatens the Rights of Women and Girls

Iraqi lawmakers’ proposal to amend the country’s family law and grant religious courts the authority to legalize marriages for underage girls is being pushed by the country’s Shiite parliamentary factions, as part of their appeal to conservative voters ahead of the country’s October 2025 elections, if not sooner.

The proposal has sparked a firestorm, particularly after initial reports suggested it could allow marriages for girls as young as 9 years old. Some experts contend the bill could also further fracture Iraq’s stability.

Not Your Mother’s Activism: Young Women’s Political Expression on Social Media

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Young women are the avant-garde of political expression online, developing expressive forms of political communication that collapse traditional distinctions between personal and political, aesthetic and substantive, emotional and analytical. Their approaches suggest new possibilities for political discourse that acknowledges rather than suppresses the role of affect, identity, and visual rhetoric in political mobilization. This piece draws from research presented in the authors’ new book, Not Your Parents’ Politics: Understanding Young People’s Political Expression on Social Media (Oxford University Press, 2024).