Fired for the Fun of It: My Experience With Trump’s Mass Termination of Federal Employees

From day one, the Trump administration has launched a strategic campaign to intimidate federal workers and the people they serve. From my perspective working as the ombudsman for unaccompanied children, a senior career position within the HHS, I observed a pattern quickly emerging: The president would issue an executive order, which was then “implemented” through an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) memo directing agencies to carry out the order, followed by daily meetings that mysteriously popped up on our calendars with little rhyme or reason.  

Ultimately, demeaning and demoralizing a workforce to score political points is unpresidential. Civil servants don’t deserve this—and neither does the public.

Explainer: How Does Family Planning Save Lives?

When a war forcibly displaces tens of thousands of people, UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, equips displacement camps and medical personnel with critical supplies—including condoms, oral and injectable contraceptives, contraceptives implants and intrauterine devices. 

When an earthquake tumbles whole city blocks, UNFPA puts contraceptives onto emergency relief convoys, alongside kits for delivering babies and medicines to stop internal bleeding.

When a cyclone slashes through remote island communities, UNFPA sends contraceptives just as it sends sterile medical equipment.

Why? Because contraceptives are part of life-saving humanitarian care.

The Publishers and Authors Fighting Back Against Book Bans

A number of prominent U.S. publishers, including the “Big 5”—Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster and Sourcebooks—along with several best-selling young adult authors, parents, teens and a library district, filed a lawsuit last week against an Idaho bill that restricts access to books accused of inappropriate “sexual content.”

The lawsuit is the latest in an ongoing battle against right-wing book bans, which often target LGBTQ+ content under the guise of “protecting children.”

Young People Are Fleeing States With Abortion Restrictions

One in five individuals planning to have children within the next decade has moved—or knows someone who has moved—to another state due to abortion restrictions. 

Characterizing the exodus as a “brain drain,” Dr. Jamila K. Taylor, president and CEO of Institute for Women’s Policy Research, warned employers: “Our report makes it clear that companies who fail to address these needs risk losing their competitive edge. To build a resilient workforce and thriving economy, it’s up to corporate leaders and lawmakers to take decisive action and make reproductive healthcare a top priority.” 

Trump’s Speech Was Full of Broken Promises, Lies, and Warnings of More Damage for Women and Families

As President Donald Trump took the stage on Tuesday night for his joint address to Congress, the stock market is down, inflation is up, consumer confidence levels are at their lowest levels since August 2021, and a large majority of Americans believe the economy and their personal cost of living are on the wrong track.

Trump’s address to Congress was filled with falsehoods, broken promises and attacks on women and families, signaling more harmful policies ahead. He pushed tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of essential programs like Medicaid and Social Security, ramped up anti-immigration rhetoric, and prioritized culture war issues over real economic solutions.

Keeping Score: Executive Orders Attack Trans Community; Americans Need Paid Leave and Childcare Policies; Unvaccinated Measles Cases Soar

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: Trump’s executive orders continue to threaten trans people’s safety, jobs and rights; policies like paid family leave and universal preschool are incredibly popular; measles spreads among unvaccinated populations; Congress signals their plan to cut SNAP and Medicaid; women’s college basketball teams will be paid for March Madness games; almost a quarter of Gen Z adults are part of the LGBTQ community; and more.

Sundance 2025: ‘Cutting Through Rocks’ Is a Groundbreaking Film on Rural Iran and a Woman Who Dared to Lead

Cutting Through Rocks, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, follows Sara Shahverdi, the first female council member of a remote village in northern Iran, as she battles for women’s rights and community progress. Despite resistance from men who dismiss her as an exception, Shahverdi strives to change the lives of local girls, advocate for property rights, and improve village infrastructure.

This intimate documentary captures her triumphs and setbacks, offering a powerful portrayal of breaking barriers in a deeply traditional society.

March 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us

The best feminist books written by women, Black, brown, AAPI, LGBTQ, Native, disabled, trans, nonbinary writers in March 2025

Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.

And so we begin a busy season for books! There are always so many new books released this time of year that it’s hard to keep up. It is even harder to narrow them all down to a list of 20.

Women’s History Month: Five Groundbreaking Researchers Who Mapped the Ocean Floor, Tested Atomic Theories, Vanquished Malaria and More

Behind some of the most fascinating scientific discoveries and innovations are women whose names might not be familiar but whose stories are worth knowing:

—Marie Tharp revolutionized oceanography by mapping the seafloor, uncovering a rift valley that helped prove plate tectonic theory.
—Margaret Morse Nice transformed ornithology with her empathetic study of song sparrows, pioneering methods still used today.
—Tu Youyou led groundbreaking research in Maoist China, extracting artemisinin from traditional medicine, which became a lifesaving malaria treatment.
—Emmy Noether, a mathematical genius praised by Einstein, overcame systemic barriers to make foundational contributions to theoretical physics.
—Chien-Shiung Wu, an atomic physicist, played a critical role in the Manhattan Project and experimentally disproved a long-standing nuclear theory … though her male colleagues received the Nobel Prize for the discovery.