Childcare

Orwell’s ‘1984’ Is Now—Thanks to Trump’s Playbook of Reversal, Gaslighting and Control

PUBLISHED 5/27/2025 by

Many have fallen for Trump’s lies—or don’t care about the truth. His cronies hope to acclimatize us, like a frog in warming water, to the atrocities of Trump’s authoritarian regime. If we continue down our current trajectory, I fear we are destined to become the controlled and manipulated society of Orwell’s 1984.

To think clearly, we must challenge their lies and relentlessly, loudly and clearly speak the truth. And we must invest in science, higher education, open debate and critical thinking without fear of penalty.

‘What About Me?’: Bringing Women’s Well-Being to the Forefront of Motherhood

PUBLISHED 5/20/2025 by

Earlier this month, I attended a “power breakfast” hosted by the Chamber of Mothers, an organization and movement driving national support for mothers. I was shocked and frankly disillusioned by how much basic maternal healthcare was emphasized as an area of desperate need.  

The way the U.S. understands, or refuses to understand, maternal health makes even asking for care a baffling proposition. Dawn Huckelbridge, founder of Paid Leave for All, recounted the moment she truly became “fired up and fed up” after giving birth to her first child. Huckelbridge was prepared in every sense: She had a supportive partner, health insurance and parents who could help her out. Upon delivering her baby, what she recalls as a traumatic experience for her mind and body, she was given even more resources for the baby: diapers, blankets, instructive care literature. 

And when she asked her doctor, “Well, what about me? What do I have to do to take care of my body?” he replied, “Things just have a way of healing.” That was the official prescription for a mother who had been carrying a baby for 40 weeks and had only given birth a moment ago.

“I’d hate to believe that it’s because we don’t care about mothers and that we don’t want to see them in power,” said Erin Erenberg, co-founder and CEO of the Chamber of Mothers.

‘Tap Someone In’: Mini Timmaraju on Mentorship, Motherhood and Mobilizing Indian American Women

PUBLISHED 5/20/2025 by | UPDATED 5/28/2025 at 1:12 P.M. PT

Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL), doesn’t just rise—she brings others with her. This ethos of tapping in challenges Indian American women to move from individual achievement to collective empowerment.

As my conversation with Timmaraju unfolded, we explored her childhood, her professional journey and the simplest yet most impactful action she believes Indian American women should take right now. It’s clear that Timmaraju’s story is not just about her own path, but about building pathways for others.

“We need to build our own villages—not just for family, but for career and leadership, too,” she said. “We shouldn’t do it alone.”

Can Unconditional Cash Transfers Help Reduce Poverty?

PUBLISHED 5/13/2025 by

How transformative would an extra $1,000 a month be for low-income Americans? That’s the question OpenResearch, started by the founder of OpenAI Sam Altman, set out to answer with its three-year Unconditional Cash Study. Participants were given $1,000 per month with no strings attached and their experiences were compared against a control group that received $50 per month.

The study’s director, Dr. Elizabeth Rhodes, sat down with Ms. to discuss the study’s findings and how cash transfers can help inform government policy to alleviate poverty.

Some highlights:
— “There are some very transformative stories and some ‘I was able to buy shampoo’ stories.”
— “We saw small reductions, about 2 percent or 1.3 hours per week, in employment. … Do we care that single parents are working a few hours less and spending more time with their kids?”
— “Critics of cash transfers argue that people will not spend the money in socially optimal ways, but participants spent to meet their basic needs.”

‘Three Dolls or Four Dolls’: Misogyny, Racism and the Lies We Tell Our Children

PUBLISHED 5/13/2025 by

The media is casting Donald Trump as this year’s Scrooge after he doubled down on the need for high tariffs and fewer dolls in an interview with Kristen Welker. “I don’t think a beautiful baby girl that’s 11 years old needs to have 30 dolls,” he said. “I think they can have three dolls or four dolls.”

Clearly, this was an attempt to deflect from economic hardship (and buying dolls are the least of parents’ concerns when the price of essentials like car seats and strollers are soaring). Because, let’s be clear, girls didn’t create tariffs or supply chain crises. Yet, Trump finds it easier to belittle girls than to acknowledge the failures of male-dominated policymaking.

Why Trump’s Pronatalist Agenda Is Actually Anti-Motherhood

PUBLISHED 5/9/2025 by

This Mother’s Day, for the 111th year in a row, families across the nation will gather to celebrate all the love, care and work provided by the mothers in their lives. Woodrow Wilson declared Mother’s Day a federal holiday nearly a year after he established the basis of today’s modern income tax system, allowing him to lower tariff rates on many of the basic necessities American families relied on in 1914.

It is darkly ironic that more than a century later, the Trump administration is attempting to reverse these pro-family policies, while at the same time promoting a pronatalist agenda aimed at creating more mothers and larger families. 

Despite promoting motherhood, Trump’s policies threaten the economic stability of the 45 percent of mothers who are primary breadwinners—especially single moms and women of color.

No Room to Pump, No Room for Error: One Mother’s Fight to Feed Her Baby at Work

PUBLISHED 5/8/2025 by

Could a system that was more responsive to parents’ needs improve their relationships, their children’s lives, even their sense of self? I began to report on that question and my book, Four Mothers: An Intimate Journey Through the First Year of Parenthood in Four Countries, is the result. It follows four women—from the U.S., Japan, Kenya and Finland, who all had babies around New Year 2022—through their first year of motherhood, to draw an intimate portrait of their lives and compare the support they received.

Read an excerpt from the book about one new mother’s experience in Kenya, where laws promise breastfeeding protections but workplaces often ignore them.

Keeping Score: Rep. Jasmine Crockett Questions Trump’s ‘Fitness to Serve’; Women Carry Two-Thirds of Student Debt; Congress Votes to Criminalize Revenge Porn

PUBLISHED 5/7/2025 by

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: HHS promotes conversion therapy-like policies and opposes gender-affirming care; new executive order could lead to discrimination from credit lenders; Trump guts the Women’s Health Initiative; Wyoming abortion clinic celebrates a TRAP law injunction; Olivia Rodrigo received Planned Parenthood award; and more.