Meet the diverse group of progressive women being sworn in this month. (Aaaany day now, boys.)
The PUMP Act Is Here. Now, We Normalize
Last week, President Biden signed off on a $1.7 trillion spending package that has everybody buzzing about the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Less discussion has surrounded another piece of legislation included in the omnibus, the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act—a long-awaited victory for all breastfeeding, chest-feeding and exclusively pumping parents working outside of the home.
Why is there so much resistance to women pumping in the workplace?
Andrew Tate as a Teachable Moment
Andrew Tate has been called “The King of Toxic Masculinity.” TikTok videos that feature him or his ideas have received an estimated 11.6 billion views. But many of his most controversial—and widely shared—pronouncements are those about women.
He says he dates women aged 18–19 because he can “make an imprint” on them. He said women in heterosexual relationships “belong to the man.” He once lectured a group of young women that their career aspirations don’t matter and that the “happiest women” have children and a man who is paying their bills. Tate has helped to normalize expressions of overt misogyny.
War on Women Report: Abortion Unavailable in 14 States; Harvey Weinstein Is Guilty; Tucker Carlson Named ‘Misinformer of the Year’
U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.
This month: WNBA star Brittney Griner is home; abortion is unavailable in 14 states, the number of women experiencing police force is rising; Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of sexual assault; Fox News star Tucker Carlson was named ‘Misinformer of the Year;’ and more.
The Pseudoscience of ‘Fetal Personhood’
Thirteen states across the U.S. now ban abortion at fertilization—the moment when an egg joins with a sperm. Another three states have passed similar bans currently blocked by courts. Many of these laws have no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, or those that threaten the health of the pregnant women.
State bans on abortion at fertilization are religious laws, not based on science, but based on misogynist myths that minimize women’s agency and personhood.
‘Dear Ms.’: What Ms. Magazine Means to Readers, Over the Decades
“Finding Ms. felt like coming home—to myself, to my voice, to my intuition, to my knowing.”
We asked what Ms. means to you—and we were moved by your replies. Ms. magazine has been at the forefront of feminist journalism for half a century. The magazine was a brazen act of independence in the 1970s. Our readers recognize the impact Ms. has made over the past 50 years.
(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.)
Dr. Curtis Boyd: A Lifetime at the Borders of Abortion’s Legality
‘Is abortion legal in the United States?’ How should we even respond to that question? One way is by telling the stories of those who have lived at the borders of abortion’s illegality, such as Dr. Curtis Boyd.
Boyd, now 85, provided illegal abortions to patients in the pre-Roe era. He successfully ran abortion clinics in Dallas and Albuquerque—devoting much of his career to crossing and re-crossing the Texas-New Mexico border, alongside his wife and business partner, Dr. Glenna Halvorson-Boyd, a reproductive rights activist and trainer of abortion counselors. Today, his Dallas clinic can no longer offer abortions. But he and other “doctors of conscience” remain committed to providing a safe space for those in need of abortion.
Ms. at 50: Five Decades of Playing by Our Own Rules
“Mightn’t a publication—say, a newsletter—serve to link up women, and to generate income as well? … a publication created by and controlled by women that could be as serious, outrageous, satisfying, sad, funky, intimate, global, compassionate, and full of change as women’s lives really are.”
—’A Personal Report From Ms.‘, 1972
When it launched 50 years ago, Ms. magazine was a brazen act of independence—demonstrating the untapped potential for journalism that centered news and analysis on women and their lives and made a feminist worldview more accessible to the public.
Ms. continues to be the place where feminists find information and inspiration. And we thank you, our loyal readers, for these past 50 years—and the next 50! As the earliest editors of this magazine wrote, “Ms. belongs to all of us.”
Our Collective Feminist Wishlist for 2023
To ring in the new year, we asked a few of our favorite feminists—reproductive justice advocates, scholars, legal minds, voting rights activists, Ms. staffers and environmental justice experts—what they are wishing for in 2023.
The Ms. Top Feminists of 2022
With so many of our rights in jeopardy, social justice advocates have had to work even harder to stand up for the causes they believe in. Tackling voting rights, public health, reproductive justice and much more, here are Ms. magazine’s picks for our top feminists of 2022.