More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer in women. Eight in 10 cases are found in women aged 50 or older, but it also affects younger women and can be found in men.
Debunking myths about birth control is not just a matter of correcting misinformation; it is crucial for empowering individuals to make informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health.
Let’s explore some myths about contraception that the young people in your life may have seen online—including that it may make you infertile (not true!) and can cause cancer (quite the opposite!).
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: the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on emergency abortion care and criminalizing homelessness; new EEOC and Title IX regulations protect sexual violence survivors, pregnant people and the LGBTQ community; Arizona repealed their 1864 abortion ban, while Florida now has a six-week ban; birth control misinformation goes viral on TikTok; the United Methodist Church repealed their ban on LGBTQ clergy; the chilling effects of the global gag rule; three in five Americans support a national law protecting access to medication abortion; and more.
The environmental and feminist movements have grown like stems and branches of a twisting vine or tree. Sometimes merging, sometimes growing apart. At times they have strengthened each other, yet at other times they have grown distant. Ultimately, they both address similar forces of oppression and exploitation. They share a common goal of dismantling the “status quo.” Their shared vision is the thriving of both women and nature. Climate change is not just an environmental crisis—it is a feminist crisis as well.
Menopause is having its moment, so say daily news headlines. A new essay series in the medical journal The Lancet, published to coincide with International Women’s Day, argues all that hype—combined with “over-medicalization” and reliance on menopausal hormone therapy—harms women by framing menopause as a disease. But, in fact, the real disservice to women is the lack of consideration of menopause in the halls of government.
If we truly want to rise to the so-called moment for menopause, here is a policy agenda that can best serve us.
Right-wing politicians like Ron DeSantis are ranting about the “woke” media, yet most women’s sites today stick to “traditional” female topics: beauty, shopping, fashion, shopping, relationship issues and more shopping.
Perusing the happy headlines featured on women’s media sites, their readers would have no idea that abortion bans have demolished the rights of women in 21 states, nor that the maternal mortality rate has spiked in those states. Are women’s digital media site editors living in a Barbieland bubble?
Late last year, my mother Susan Catania—former Illinois state legislator, a relentless advocate for the ERA and a fearless champion of critical but politically unpopular causes—died.
Beholden to no one and with nothing to lose, she was known for her willingness to take unpopular stances. She introduced gay rights legislation, championed gun control and was the first Illinois legislator to sponsor the Freedom of Information Act. She passed income tax reform, a compensation plan for crime victims and legislation that led Illinois to become the first state to designate a state holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. More than 50 of her bills became law. But the fight that defined her career was the Equal Rights Amendment; she even became the ERA’s primary sponsor in Illinois.
One hundred and ninety-one years after the first Supreme Court was convened, Sandra Day O’Connor smashed the glass ceiling and was sworn in as the first woman to become an associate justice and one of the most influential members in the history of the Court.
For 12 years, she was the only women on the bench and the most powerful woman in the United States. At the time, the entire institution was designed for and by men—from the signs on the walls harking to “Mr. Justice,” to the lack of bathrooms and other facilities closed off to women (though she later inaugurated and regularly attended an aerobics class for women law clerks).
The most common benign breast tumor is called a fibroadenoma. It is estimated to impact one in four women overall. Despite its frequency, most people have never even heard the term.
We need more research and awareness, starting a larger conversation about women’s health, cancer risk factors and quality of life.
Dr. Susan Love died on July 2, 2023, after a long struggle with leukemia. Love was a founder of National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) and a true advocate for patients.
Knowing that ending breast cancer requires advocate voices and action, Susan Love was part of a small group of women who came together in 1991 to form NBCC. Through the strength of her charisma, brilliance and firm belief in women’s power, she helped unite activists, survivors, researchers, policymakers and grassroots and national organizations to work together toward ending the disease for everyone.
On Sept. 27, 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring and founded the modern environmental movement.
Following World War II, the United Stated embarked on a love affair with chemicals. When Carson published Silent Spring at 55, she was dying from breast cancer. Her book alerted the world to the dangers of the toxic chemicals that may have caused her disease. Carson died on April 14, 1964, at 56, never knowing to what extent her work would be vindicated or glimpsing its long-term impact.