Four Concrete Ways Business Leaders Can Ease the Burden on Working Parents

As a mom of two, an executive and someone who’s worked to elect pro-family leaders, I know firsthand how broken our system is for working parents—especially as the Trump administration pushes for higher birth rates while cutting support. In my new book When We’re in Charge, I offer four key ways business leaders can help fill the gap and ease the burden on working parents:

Paid family leave: It’s a win-win—good for families and for companies. But leaders need to actually take the leave to normalize it.

Four-day workweeks: Working parents are doing multiple jobs. Giving people time back improves mental health, productivity and balance.

Remote and hybrid work: Return-to-office mandates don’t work for most, especially parents. Flexible work is not only doable—it’s better long term.

People-first cultures: Go beyond policy. Model compassion. Make it okay to be a full person at work—not just an employee.

If we build more humane workplaces, we’ll support parents and improve outcomes for everyone.

When News Out of the Nation’s Capital Feels Like Too Much to Bear, Take the Fight Local

Last week was another raucous week in Congress, with continued discord over the fiscal, social and societal implications of President Donald Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” as it heads to the Senate.

Meanwhile, the wheels continue to spin in dozens of statehouses across the country, many of which are at the height of their own legislative sessions. And it’s not all doom and gloom—which is one of the exciting aspects of state politics.

Either way, state legislatures offer an extraordinary window into the good, the bad and the ugly of the democratic process—a laboratory for what robust, participatory democracy can and often does achieve.

Profiles in Courage: Gwynne Wilcox Was the First Black Woman on the NLRB—And the First to Be Fired by a President

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Throughout the month of May, the Profiles in Courage spotlighted women in the Department of Justice, federal agencies and the military whose careers have been defined by integrity, resilience and reform. Their quiet heroism—often at personal cost—reaffirms the enduring role of public servants who choose justice over self-interest. Through their stories, Ms. pays tribute to a tradition of service that safeguards democracy and inspires the next generation to lead with courage.

In 2023, labor lawyer Gwynne Wilcox—whose union-side advocacy career has spanned decades—shattered two barriers: becoming the first Black woman seated on the National Labor Relations Board and, soon after, its chair. The board’s institutional independence was hastily put to the test on Jan. 27, 2025, just one week after President Donald Trump’s return to office. Wilcox received a midnight email from the White House saying she was dismissed, effective immediately.

Refusing to accept her unlawful dismissal, Wilcox filed suit against the Trump administration. On May 22, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a brief order allowing Trump to dismiss Wilcox from the NLRB. Writing for the three dissenters, Justice Elena Kagan quoted Alexander Hamilton as saying: “To avoid an arbitrary discretion in the courts, it is indispensable that they should be bound down by strict rules and precedents.” The order, she said, “favors the president over our precedent.”

Women Rise in Cabinets and Campaigns—But Gaps Persist, From Korea to Congress

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is 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:
—For the first time in Australian history, there will be more women than men in the federal Cabinet, thanks in large part to ranked-choice voting and gender quotas.
—Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop announces South Orange Village Mayor Sheena Collum as running mate.
—A new report written by Jennifer Piscopo, Nancy L. Cohen and Natalia Vega Varela explores how gender inequality continues to limit women’s opportunities and well-being globally.
—As South Korea approaches its 2025 presidential election, the complete absence of female candidates on the final ballot marks a stark regression in gender representation.

… and more!

War on Women Report: Texas Woman Jailed for Miscarriage; Maine Advances Law to Protect Abortion Pill Prescribers’ Identities; Louisiana Intensifies Legal Attacks on N.Y. Abortion Provider

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MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report:
—A judge struck down federal regulations that required U.S. employers to give workers paid time off for abortions.
—Catholic cardinals elected the first American pope, Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV. He has strongly opposed abortion and expressed hesitancy over IVF.
—Some good news out of North Carolina: After a six-month legal battle, Republican Jefferson Griffin has conceded the North Carolina Supreme Court race to Democrat Allison Riggs.
—Earlier this month, the FDA approved the first at-home replacement for Pap smears.

… and more.

Outperforming Men, Undervalued Anyway: How Conservative Myths Undermine Women in Medicine

Medical literature extensively documents differences in practice by a physician’s gender. Women are more likely to practice evidence-based medicine and adhere to clinical guidelines. Nationally, women outpace men in both college and medical school enrollment. In medical training, women outperform their male peers on clinical assessments and are more likely to attain an honors degree.

Therefore, the merit-based hiring practices that the Trump administration vociferously demands should logically reflect these data. Yet, in 2022, women accounted for 38 percent of active physicians in the U.S., up from 26 percent in 2004. 

Might this indicate that men, not women, are the “diversity hires” of medicine? 

Could Hollywood’s Vision of a Black Woman President Help Make It Possible?

Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning featured Tom Cruise’s action hero Ethan Hunt deep-sea diving through a submarine 500 feet under the sea, swimming naked in sub-zero temperatures, and sky diving in the middle of a plane duel. And yet, perhaps the most implausible fiction was… a Black woman president of the United States?!

Black male presidents in film and TV set the stage for Barrack Obama’s election. Could more depictions of Black female leaders pave the way for a Black woman president?

(This is Part 1 of a two-part series on women leaders and feminist leadership. Part 2—out Monday, June 2—continues with a public syllabus.)

Survivors of Sexual Abuse Can Still Hope—But the Vatican Must Choose Justice Over Denial 

When Pope Leo XIV stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on May 9, 2025, survivors of clergy sexual abuse around the world looked on—not with awe, but with apprehension. His election, rather than ushering in an era of accountability and healing, has reopened wounds. Many had hoped for a papacy rooted in reckoning, but instead, we have received familiar deflections—denials of personal responsibility for cases that unfolded under his leadership in past roles. Rather than acknowledging institutional failures or the human suffering caused, he has opted for self-preservation over repentance, speaking in guarded tones that prioritize the Church’s reputation over the voices of its most wounded.

As Reproductive Rights Collapse, Funders Are Disappearing. Why?

Grassroots organizations are on the frontlines of defending human rights at this moment. Yet, it’s alarming that major funders are leaving the field right when groups working to defend bodily autonomy and democracy need them most. 

In the 2024 presidential election, we saw the consequences of what happens when donors abandon grassroots organizations—where a billion dollars were raised for the Harris campaign at the expense of movement organizations in key battleground states. In a presidential election lost to low voter turnout, the decision to underfund grassroots groups—those best equipped to knock on doors and mobilize voters—proved dangerously short-sighted.

(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund.)