Global

The Best Birthday Gift for Trump? Voting in Every 2025 Election

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

This week:
—2025 is often considered an off-year for elections, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
—Washington, D.C., is the site of dueling images: Pride and Trump’s alleged celebration of U.S. military might.
—Hannah Pingree has joined the crowded Democratic field for governor in Maine.
—U.S. Rep Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) will join Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger as Democratic nominees for governor in races leaning toward Democrats.
—San Antonio elects Gina Ortiz Jones as mayor.
—Ranked-choice voting is a women’s issue.

… and more!

Sneak Peek: What’s Up With Men? Ms. Magazine Summer Issue Tackles ‘Brocasts,’ JD Vance and the State of American Manhood

It’s true that many boys and men are struggling. It’s also true that the right has successfully weaponized those struggles in their relentless attacks on feminists, liberals and progressives, and anyone else they can accuse of “wokeism,” and subsequently disparage and defund.

The “Special Report on Men” in the upcoming Ms. Summer issue—on newsstands July 1—seeks, instead, to understand the ways in which men’s struggles are connected to larger questions of gender and power that feminists have wrestled with for centuries.

You’ll find:
—Why is the vice president sitting like that? Organizer and writer Garrett Bucks sees through JD Vance’s awkward posture to reveal his self-defeating message for young men.
—Mental health clinician Jewel Woods argues that healing men and boys requires looking beyond grievance-based narratives.
—Jackson Katz promotes an untapped strategy for preventing violence against women: making it men’s work.

… and more!

Philanthropy Can ‘Unlock Profound Change’ for Women and Girls in this Moment—and Women-Led Orgs Are Rising to the Occasion

Less than 2 percent of philanthropic giving in the U.S. directly benefits women and girls, a percentage that is likely even lower on a global scale. Amidst rollbacks on women’s rights, cuts to federal funding, economic uncertainty—and so many other issues and inequities that inevitably hit women and girls the hardest—philanthropy’s role is more important than ever.  

Women funders and donors, along with an increasing number of women-led philanthropic organizations, are rising to meet the moment, knowing that the benefits of centering women and girls are far reaching and profound.

Read timely takes on what women and girls need right now from funders—featuring Ana Marie Argilagos, president and CEO of Hispanics in Philanthropy; Brooke D. Anderson, president of Pivotal Ventures; Sarah Haacke Byrd, CEO of Women Moving Millions; Cecilia A. Conrad, CEO and founder of Lever for Change; Asha Curran, CEO of GivingTuesday; and Valerie Jarrett, CEO of the Obama Foundation.

Keeping Score: Trump Administration Targets Immigrants and Emergency Abortion Care; Newsom Pushes Back

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:
—California Governor Gavin Newsom stands up to President Trump over ICE raids: “California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next.”
—Trump threatens EMTALA.
—Israeli forces detained Greta Thunberg and 11 other activists while trying to deliver aid to Gaza.
—New research found unintended pregnancies correlate with gender inequality.
—Taylor Swift finally owns her entire music catalog.

… and more.

The Ugliest of Bills: How Republicans’ Reconciliation Bill Endangers All Children

One of the many dangers of the budget reconciliation package currently before the Senate is its audacity. It is so large, so ugly and so expensive—nothing beautiful to see here—that it can be hard to know how to fight back. 

So much is at risk that, even assuming some of the most talked-about measures, such as Medicaid cuts, are removed or modified in the Senate, it is likely that passage of This Ugliest of Bills (THUG Bill) would still fundamentally harm millions of people.  

Children—citizen and non-citizen—are going to be especially hard hit if this ugliest of bills passes.

Ms. Global: Police Target Georgian Women Protesters, Dominican Republic Deports Pregnant Haitian Women, and More

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.

This week: News from South Korea, Mexico, Poland, Australia and more.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Honoring Stonewall’s Legacy; NYC Mayor Race Shows Benefits of Ranked-Choice Voting for Women

A compilation about women’s representation in politics, sports and entertainment, judicial offices and the private sector—with a little gardening mixed in!

This week:
— New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is expected to qualify for public matching funds this week after a late surge in campaign donations, thanks to a surprising boost from a rival.
—progress made towards gender parity in international elections
—In South Korea’s June presidential election, young women played a pivotal role in electing Lee Jae-myung, leading one reporter to call it “the anti-anti-feminist election.”
—June is Pride Month, marking the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City, a turning point in queer activism in the United States.

… and more.

From Natural Process to Nightmare: How Gaza’s Women and Girls Cope With Their Periods in a War Zone

Since March 2, 2025, Israel has imposed a total aid blockade on Gaza that has caused the complete depletion of hygiene supplies, including sanitary pads for menstrual health. Almost 90 percent of water and sanitation infrastructure in Gaza has been either destroyed or partially damaged, and fuel for water pumping and distributions has now run out. 

As nine in 10 households face severe water shortages, women and girls are forced to manage their periods without clean water, soap, supplies or even privacy. Many now describe menstruation as a source of anxiety and isolation.

One adolescent girl expressed the deep frustration and helplessness so many feel: “Every time my period comes, I wish I weren’t a girl.”

Rest in Power: Étienne-Émile Baulieu, Abortion Pill Inventor and Women’s Rights Advocate 

Millions of women around the world gained safety, dignity and autonomy over their bodies thanks to Étienne-Émile Baulieu. The visionary biochemist, feminist and fearless innovator—best known for developing and championing “RU 486,” now known as mifepristone—died at his Paris home on May 30 at the age of 98.

Mifepristone has saved countless lives and offered millions of women a way to end unwanted pregnancies in the privacy and comfort of their homes. Baulieu and others championed the development of mifepristone for uses beyond abortion—including for treatment of fibroids, endometriosis, postpartum depression and cancer. He supported its use in managing miscarriages and as a way to help to dilate the cervix to reduce the need for Caesarean births. His vision for mifepristone wasn’t just to end pregnancies but to protect women’s health and reduce medical intervention that too often harmed them.

He predicted in 1991: “RU-486 will make its American entrance: science, good sense, and freedom will triumph.”

And here’s his view on why there has been tremendous opposition to abortion pills from the antiabortion movement: “A method that makes the termination of pregnancy less physically traumatic for women and less risky to their health has always been rejected by pro-lifers: What they really seek is to harm and punish women.”