Category: Global

Israel-Gaza War: Threats and Attacks Against Women Journalists Covering the Conflict

Since the start of the Israel-Gaza War, a chilling tally of 40 journalists have been confirmed dead, with others either missing, detained or grievously injured. The Coalition For Women In Journalism is closely monitoring the situation on the frontlines and documenting violations against women journalists covering the conflict.

In the face of the growing threats and attacks against women journalists covering the war, it is imperative that we unite and take a stand for press freedom.

(This essay is part of the “Feminist Journalism is Essential to Democracy” project—Ms. magazine’s latest installment of Women & Democracy, presented in partnership with the International Women’s Media Foundation.)

Courage in Journalism Awards: Honoring Women Reporters Amid War, Censorship and Authoritarian Rule

The Courage in Journalism Awards show people that women journalists are not going to step aside, cannot be silenced, and deserve to be recognized for their strength in the face of adversity.

Meet the recipients of the 2023 Courage in Journalism awards.

(This essay is part of the “Feminist Journalism is Essential to Democracy” project—Ms. magazine’s latest installment of Women & Democracy, presented in partnership with the International Women’s Media Foundation.)

Eyes on Everywhere Else: Sudan, Pakistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Eastern Congo

The world is not confined to Israel and Palestine, and it should be possible to give that conflict the attention and outrage it deserves—which is a lot—while not treating other people as trivial or disposable because they happen to live in places that are not as geopolitically relevant to U.S. interests, or are not as psychologically or biologically tied to as many Americans and Europeans, or are not as connected to the American and European telling of history.

It does not have to be this way. We do not have to turn our eyes away.

Keeping Score: Georgia Upholds Six-Week Abortion Ban; Republicans Aim to Eliminate Women’s Bureau at Labor Department; Elections Reveal National Support for Reproductive Freedom

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: House Republicans’ plan to eliminate the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor; Southern states push discriminatory election policies; Scholastic book fairs affected by state bans on LGBTQ+ books and books about race; actor Suzanne Somers dies after career shaped by advocating for equal pay in television; Georgia supreme court upholds six-week abortion ban; 82 percent of mothers handle more childcare responsibilities than their partner; harassment and violence mounts against journalists in Gaza and American Jews and Muslims; National Domestic Violence Hotline reports surge in “reproductive coercion”-related calls; and more.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Ranked-Choice Voting Victories in the Latest Election; The SAG-AFTRA Strike and Fran Drescher’s Leadership

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

This week: Four steps we must take to see more women running in future elections; St. Paul, Minn., which uses ranked-choice voting for local elections, is projected to elect its first women-majority city council; how Shirley Chisholm, the first Black congresswoman in the U.S., shifted political rival Alabama Governor George Wallace’s stance on racial segregation; and more.

Lauding the Taliban Despite Glaring Human Rights Abuses Normalizes Their Violence

Feridun Sinirlioğlu, the United Nations’ special coordinator for Afghan affairs, said last week that “good progress had been made in Afghanistan, and there is a “misunderstanding” between the international community and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

If gender apartheid is a misunderstanding, then it should be immediately recognized by the United Nations so the Taliban can be held accountable for their actions against Afghan women and girls.

United Nations Condemns U.S. Failure to Address Discrimination Against Women, Directs U.S. to Ratify ERA and CEDAW

The United Nations Human Rights Committee directed the U.S. to address rampant discrimination against women in American law and society, including epidemic rates of violence against women and girls as well as violations of their sexual and reproductive rights.

The committee specifically directed the U.S. government to recognize the fully ratified Equal Rights Amendment.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Women-Majority City Councils Make a Difference; Remembering ‘Frankenstein’ Author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. In this week’s Weekend Reading, we’ll expose the “tricks” that have haunted our democracy and celebrate the “treats” that can remove these obstacles once and for all.

Here’s a preview: Women-majority city councils (like New York City’s!) make a difference; Missouri’s supreme court is one of just 11 in the country to have a female majority; will Texas’ 12th District will elect another woman to office?; and more.

Who Pays the Price for Men’s Wars?

The people who are least responsible for this war—women, children, innocents of all kinds—are bearing the heaviest burdens of this war.

I’m on the side of the women whose children’s lives have been stolen, of the women who were told to flee but had nowhere to go, of the women who fled but were bombed anyway, of the women who don’t have clean water or medicine or electricity or a safe place to hide, of the women who like so many women are desperate down to the marrow to protect their children, of the women who cannot do that one singular thing, of the women scrawling names on their children’s limbs so someone might be able to identify them, of the women who are pulling their children’s bodies out of piles of rubble, of the women who lost their lives to a war they didn’t start and wanted nothing to do with.

Ms. Global: Iran Passes New Hijab Laws, Mexico Moves to Elect First Female President, Western Australia Decriminalizes Abortion

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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 time with news from Mexico, Iran, Brazil, Somalia and more.