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.

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

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).

‘Easy to Just Write Us Off’: Rural Students’ Choices Shrink as Colleges Slash Majors

Although she won a scholarship to Mississippi State University, two hours’ drive away, Shamya Jones couldn’t get there because she had a new baby and no car. So she enrolled instead at a local community college, then transferred to the four-year campus closest to her home in the rural Mississippi Delta: Delta State University.

She planned to major in digital media arts, but before she could start, Delta State eliminated that major, along with 20 other degree programs, including history, English, chemistry and music.

“They’re cutting off so much, and teachers [are] leaving,” Jones said. “It’s like we’re not getting the help or benefits we need.” The cuts “take away from us, our education.”

That kind of frustration is growing. Rural Americans already have far less access to higher education than their counterparts in cities and suburbs. Now the comparatively few universities that serve rural students are eliminating large numbers of programs and majors, blaming plummeting enrollment and financial crises. Many rural private, nonprofit colleges are closing altogether.

Women’s Independence, Credit Cards and Economic Power: Celebrating 50 Years of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) of 1974 enabled women to get credit cards or a mortgage without a co-signer, making it a pivotal milestone for women’s financial independence. The 50th anniversary of ECOA being signed into law by President Gerald Ford fell just a week ahead of the recent presidential election, considered by many to be a referendum on women’s rights in a political climate still reeling from the revocation of Roe. That critical landmark for women’s autonomy was overturned by the Dobbs decision in 2022, one year short of reaching its own half-century observance. 

By focusing on women’s independence through the lens of economic power over the last 50 years, a new Smithsonian exhibit—”We Do Declare Women’s Voices on Independence,” commemorating ECOA’s passage—hones in on another essential factor in women’s ability to achieve freedom, security and power: financial independence.

Flying Free: Wicked’s Feminist Message

In Wicked, there are many parallels to our own universe: the rise of fascism in Oz; the vilification of a powerful woman (whose laugh some incidentally described as a “cackle”) concerned about the well-being of the most marginalized among us; a media enabling propaganda to villainize said powerful woman and prop up an empty shell of a man specializing in elaborate cons; and the failure of solidarity between women.

Part 1 ends with Elphaba’s ostracism from Oz, but the cinematic pan of her ascension in the sky looks less like tragedy and more like triumph. In times that require moral clarity, a perpetual outsider coming to self-actualization, freed from systems of power because she’s found her own, highlights that we have to look to different skies and different lenses to find a new kind of heroism.