Global

Ms. Magazine Wins Gold at the Anthem Awards for FEMINIST 250, a Celebration of the Women Who Shaped America

PUBLISHED 11/6/2026 by

Ms. is thrilled to announce that FEMINIST 250: Founding Feminists has won Gold in Special Projects, Belonging and Inclusion at the 2026 Anthem Awards.

Presented by the organization behind the prestigious Webby Awards, the Anthems are considered the premier international honors for social impact, recognizing the world’s most innovative and influential work advancing social change.

Launched during Women’s History Month to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary, FEMINIST 250: Founding Feminists is sweeping, beautifully illustrated collection of essays, historical research, art and multimedia storytelling that challenges the familiar story of America’s founding.

Among the project’s most compelling stories:
—In “Haudenosaunee Governance: The Matrilineal Democracy That Shaped America,” Michelle Schenandoah, a member of the Oneida Nation Wolf Clan, explores an Indigenous system of governance in which women have long held political, economic and spiritual authority—and whose democratic traditions influenced the United States.
—Historian Vanessa M. Holden’s “She Wanted to Be Free: Black Women’s Revolutionary Resistance” tells the story of Ona Judge, a woman enslaved by George and Martha Washington who escaped to freedom, and the countless other Black women who resisted slavery long before the nation’s founding ideals were extended to them.
—In “Queer Possibilities in Revolutionary America,” historian Jen Manion challenges the notion that transgender and gender-nonconforming people are a modern phenomenon. She uncovers the lives of people who defied gender expectations centuries before today’s language for LGBTQ+ identities existed.

… and more.

Ms. Global: South Korea Approves Abortion Pills; Anti-Femicide Protests in Cameroon; 50K Women and Girls Killed or Injured in Gaza in Three Years; and More

PUBLISHED 11/4/2026 by and

The U.S. ranks as the 31st most dangerous country for women, 55th in maternal mortality, 43rd in closing the gender pay gap, 84th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to healthcare. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’ most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.

This month:
—South Korea is set to approve abortion pills for public use the first time next year.
—Women political prisoners face torture and other abuses in Myanmar, warns Human Rights Watch.
—Nearly 50,000 women and girls have been killed or severely injured in Gaza in the past three years.
—Somalia approves bill to strengthen rights for abuse victims after a decade of negotiations.
—Gen Z is helping organize India’s pro-democracy protests.

… and more.

A Pregnant Haitian Woman Faces an Uncertain Future After Trump Ends Temporary Protected Status: ‘I’m Sorry I’m Bringing Her Into This World’

PUBLISHED 11/1/2026 by

Marie (a pseudonym) lay on the cold examination table again, watching as the doctor moved the ultrasound wand across her belly. Eight months pregnant, after suffering a miscarriage in August 2025, she was navigating a high-risk pregnancy complicated by avascular necrosis, a condition that eventually led to a double hip replacement.

Now, as she listened to her baby girl’s heartbeat, she couldn’t help but wonder whether the receptionist had frowned at her because she was having a bad day or because something in Marie’s file had made her consider calling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

As I sat with Marie, I watched as she held back tears when she spoke about her daughter and the guilt she felt. “I feel so bad for her sometimes… I’m sorry that I’m bringing her into this world under these circumstances. It feels like somehow failing in life.”

Marie’s exhaustion is not unique within the Haitian community. Earlier this month, the community buried Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian college student who died by suicide on Aug. 31 after losing TPS and being required to wear an ankle monitor by ICE.

I asked Marie what she hoped for her daughter. Rubbing her belly, she said, “I would love for her to grow up in a world where she’s not going to experience the things that I’m experiencing … Being a community organizer, I’ve seen change happen in my lifetime, so I know it is possible for things to change. Nothing can stay the same. I’m hopeful that the generation that we are in will help turn the boat around.”

With the Nov. 3 midterm elections approaching, voters have an opportunity to examine where candidates stand on Temporary Protected Status, immigration enforcement and access to healthcare for immigrant families.

These aren’t abstract policy debates for people like Marie. They’re questions of whether a mother can afford prenatal care, whether she can work to support her family and whether she can imagine a secure future for her daughter.

Keeping Score: Early Voting Signals Strong Midterm Turnout; Hundreds of Women Charged With Pregnancy-Related ‘Crimes’; Dems Seek Special Counsel on Trump-Epstein Ties

PUBLISHED 10/29/2026 by

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:
—As early voting begins, several Texas counties report record-breaking turnout.
—Vivek Ramaswamy sinks to new lows by weaponizing his opponent’s esranged mother and childhood sexual abuse.
—Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated far-right challenger Flávio Bolsonaro.
—Protests continue on the Cornell campus after allegations of gang rape by fraternity members.
—Women are much more likely to have their autoimmune conditions dismissed as psychological.
—Over 900 women have been charged with pregnancy-related “crimes” since Roe was overturned.
—More than 500 U.S. citizens have been detained by ICE under Trump.
—ICE also collected over 48 million voter records and investigated hundreds of nonprofits that help people register to vote. ICE may have shared this state voter data with a Palantir surveillance tool used to identify and locate immigration enforcement targets.
—New Mexico’s universal childcare policy led to an increase in labor force participation by lower-income moms.
—The National Women’s History Museum is honoring teachers Kristen Kelly and Serene Williams, who created the first AP U.S. Women’s History class, with the 2026 Meryl Streep Educator Award.
—Four members of antiabortion group Students for Life have been sued under a Texas law they supported.
—House Judiciary Democrats released a 53-page report compiling allegations of sexual misconduct involving President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein and calling for an independent special counsel to investigate.
—UltraViolet and the Trump-Epstein Reading Room held an event highlighting MoMA trustee Leon Black’s references in the Epstein files and his multiple rape accusations.
—Almost 70 percent of voters in the Deep South do not believe the government should ban abortion.
—”The Trump administration’s announcement to pursue a military execution by a manner not used in the military since 1945 demonstrates the federal government’s zeal for brutality at any cost,” says the Legal Defense Fund.
—The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have unionized.

… and more.

From Gaza to SNAP, U.S. Food Policies Are Making Women Hungrier

PUBLISHED 10/28/2026 by

This election, hunger weighs heavily on the ballot—particularly for voters who care about women. From Gaza to Cuba, from USAID to SNAP, current U.S. food policies reveal a troubling pattern of misogyny.

Four prominent examples—Gaza, Cuba, USAID and the grotesque “One Big Beautiful Bill”—illustrate how U.S. food and agricultural policies eliminate or obstruct urgently needed food assistance. These policies deepen food insecurity through deliberate government decisions.

In each case, research documents the compounding burdens these cuts place on women.

Across the country and around the world, women shoulder much of the responsibility for feeding families and communities. Cutting food assistance increases their unpaid care work, compounds existing hardships and undermines their autonomy.

‘In Protest’: The Women Leading the Resistance Against Israel’s Authoritarian Turn 

PUBLISHED 10/26/2026 by

On Oct. 27, Israelis go to the polls in the first national election since Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023. It is also the first since Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power at the end of 2022 and launched an assault on Israeli democracy, beginning with a plan to strip the courts of their independence.

For the feminist movement that revolted against Netanyahu’s government, the vote comes after three years of pressure to choose between opposing the state and standing with the nation.

One of the Israeli feminist movement’s most visible leaders is now on the ballot. Moran Zer Katzenstein founded Bonot Alternativa (Women Building an Alternative), the group behind the red-cloaked Handmaids marches that became a defining image of the 2023 protests.

This spring she joined Yair Golan’s Democrats party, and in July she won the 12th spot on its slate. In Protest, a short documentary by Paula Kweskin and Carli Fogel (available to stream on YouTube), shows how she got there.

The Violent Cost of Being a Woman in Politics Spans Continents

PUBLISHED 10/23/2026 by

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world … with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment.

This week:
—There is not (yet) the political will in the U.S. to talk about gender quotas … but 35 nations in Europe have either been mandated or volunteered to implement them.
—Weeks after the brutal rape of Arizona congressional candidate Bernadette Greene-Placentia, Australian independent member of Parliament Helen Haines is in hospital in a critical condition after she was struck by a car outside her office in what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said appears to have been “a deliberate act.”
—”Politicians are no longer treated like we’re human,” says Arizona state legislator Alma Hernandez, who is facing rising harassment and threats.
—Federal agents searched the Washington-area home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a frequent critic of Republican President Donald Trump.
—If elected governor of Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms would become the first Black woman governor in U.S. history. 

… and more.

An ‘Old Boy’s Network’: Groundbreaking Report Exposes Decades of Catholic Clergy Abuse and Ongoing Protection of Abusers

PUBLISHED 10/14/2026 by and

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell released a 203-page report on Sept. 30 showing more than 270 Catholic priests abused at least 1,000 children over several decades in the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester.

The report focuses on how church leadership, including bishops, perpetuated this abuse by failing to report crimes to the police, obstructing investigations into these crimes and repeatedly reassigning perpetrators to new parishes, where they abused even more children. The report also details the ways current Catholic leadership continues to circumvent policies and procedures designed to protect children.

“For decades, survivors of clergy sexual abuse, including those who are no longer alive, have carried the devastating consequences of abuse, while the institutions entrusted with their care too often failed to protect them,” said AG Campbell. “This report provides for the first time a public accounting of the unimaginable harms afflicted on children in the Fall River, Springfield and Worcester dioceses.”

This report is the latest of many revealing widespread clergy sexual abuse and institutional coverups in the Catholic Church and other male-dominated patriarchal religions.

The Massachusetts attorney general’s report catalogs testimony from several survivors of abuse, including Frank Fitzpatrick, who was repeatedly gang-raped by James Porter and other priests beginning when he was a 9-year-old altar boy.

“I am that boy. I carry him with me, always,” wrote Fitzpatrick. “He took your violence, you shameful enablers who do nothing but cover up and perpetuate the cycle of systemic abuse. You call yourselves representatives of God. God has no place in anything you stand for. God is safety; God is nurturing; God is protection; God is Love.”

Offline and Overlooked: Why Girls’ Internet Access Is a Feminist Issue

PUBLISHED 10/9/2026 by and

Last summer, our Girls Learn International chapter set out with a mission to support girls in finding their own voices to lead their communities on issues they cared about. We organized an international public speaking webinar with Sierra Leone Rising, which helped us reach 40 girls in villages in Sierra Leone.

Even with nonprofit backing, internet barriers strained our capacity to communicate regularly, blurring the vision that had seemed so “doable” in writing. As students in well-resourced suburban towns, we had taken reliable internet access for granted.

Our surprise turned to anger: How could something so basic, so essential to daily life in the modern world, remain out of reach for so many school-aged children around the globe? In what world could a student in a small, remote village be promised equal opportunity without access to the digital tools other students take for granted?

‘The Story Is Not Finished’: Robin Morgan, Feminist Pioneer and Former Ms. Editor in Chief, in Her Very Last Interview

PUBLISHED 10/8/2026 by

I had the privilege of interviewing Robin Morgan this summer. It turned out to be her last ever interview, as it was only a few weeks for her death.

On a hot afternoon in August, I arrived at Morgan’s New York home, situated on a tree-lined block. “Come in, come in!” she exclaimed, gesturing with her hands from her front door.

Then there were the rows upon rows of books lining nearly every wall, all neatly organized. There were no nooks and crannies in Morgan’s apartment, only books. “I wish I’d written more,” she said to me quietly, looking at her overstuffed shelves. “I should have written more. I know I’ll be on my deathbed thinking, ‘I should have written more.’”

As we walked outside, she smiled and gestured at the true source of her pride: her garden. I marveled at the lush greenery and took great pleasure sitting under the shade of a large, ancient-looking linden tree while listening to the gentle bubbling of a small water fountain.

“I used to sleep out here,” Morgan said, pointing to a reclining day bed and smiling wistfully. Parkinson’s disease had reshaped her body, her speech, the ability to travel freely and her relationships. She was trying to “make something of the disease, rather than what it would make of me.”

Her formal politicization, not surprisingly, was rooted in the liberal left—and then it was not. The left, like all ideological political groups in those days, was male dominated. She joined leftist movements believing in shared liberation and thinking the genders “were marching together toward freedom and we were all equal—but we weren’t,” she said.

“The women were doing all the shit work, and the men were running around being leaders and heroes. It made me furious.” Her fury lit a spark under her and she wrote “Goodbye to All That,” a direct name-naming attack on the male left.