More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Climate change is a global issue we have to address together, both through adaption and prevention. Governments have been slow to respond to the crisis, but climate advocates have continued to push for instrumental change across nations. The affects of climate change are far-reaching—on the global food supply, sea levels, weather pattens and spread of disease—and already disproportionately impact women and poorer nations.
Long before the current political divide over climate change, and even before the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), an American scientist named Eunice Foote documented the underlying cause of today’s climate change crisis.
The year was 1856. Foote’s brief scientific paper was the first to describe the extraordinary power of carbon dioxide gas to absorb heat—the driving force of global warming.
As The New York Times noted not long ago, Trump “had not appeared to be swayed by protests, petitions, hashtag campaigns or other tools of mass dissent.” That’s a common perspective these days. But what if it’s wrong?
In fact, popular resistance in Trump’s first term accomplished more than many observers realize; it’s just that most wins happened outside the spotlight. In my view, the most visible tactics—petitions, hashtags, occasional marches in Washington—had less impact than the quieter work of organizing in communities and workplaces.
Understanding when movements succeeded during Trump’s first term is important for identifying how activists can effectively oppose Trump policy in his second administration.
The impact of climate change exacerbates health risks and discrimination for people with albinism, particularly women, who face unique challenges in healthcare and education.
“This larger fight is really a global fight and continental fight against the dominance of ableism,” said Sarah Bosha, lawyer and co-author of a new study, “The Forgotten Ones: The Impact of Climate Change on the Health and Well-being of Persons with Albinism.”
Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
This week:
—Lifelong feminist, activist and former president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, died.
—A new report is sobering for anyone who have assumed increased women’s leadership was inevitable.
—Alaska’s legislative session begins, where women hold the majority of seats in the House and bipartisanship is flourishing.
—In New Mexico, women lawmakers have changed the legislative culture, addressing sexual harassment and championing policies to reduce child poverty and protect reproductive rights.
… and more.
With 40,000 acres burned and more than 13,000 buildings destroyed in the SoCal wildfires, which have decimated whole neighborhoods of Los Angeles over the last two weeks, most recovery efforts have focused on providing shelter and food for the 10,000-plus people evacuated from their homes.
Fourteen-year-old Avery Colvert, whose school was destroyed in the fire, started the donation drive Altadena Girls to help young girl survivors find less obvious (but equally comforting) items. While GoFundMe has countless pages of drives for individual families who lost their homes, Altadena Girls sent out a call on Instagram for supplies like nail polish, pimple patches and curly hair products.
“For teenage girls who have lost everything, feeling like ourselves again is also really important for our mental health.”
Many of you have reached out to us, asking how the Ms. office and our staff are faring through the hellish Los Angeles fires. Thank you. I’m relieved to report that so far, none of us have lost our homes, though some have been evacuated and await the all-clear that they can return safely.
As we’ve watched the ash drift past our office windows like strange snow, we have been thinking about how many of our Ms. community members have had to gather quickly together what matters most as they prepared to leave their homes—photo albums, children’s drawings, medical records. Those precious fragments that make up a life. Each with their own story, their own particular moment of leaving. Taking one last look, wondering what would remain when they returned.
Women’s lives are made up of these crucial moments—the things we save, the things we lose, the way we hold each other up afterward.
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 considers a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for trans teens; data shows crimes in public restrooms and changing rooms are extremely rare, and are not decreased by laws preventing trans people from using public bathrooms; analyzing Trump’s cabinet nominees; midwives say climate change is harming their communities; Nevada maintains a majority woman legislature; criminal justice reform for probation, parole and bail is critical; Arizona moves to end 15-week abortion ban; Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal have asked the Biden administration to limit the federal government from deploying troops domestically; and more.
Generation Z—born between the mid 1990s and the early 2010s—is the most diverse generation in American history, with nearly half of the Gen Z electorate in 2024 identifying as people of color. Gen Z has also come of age during the rise of school shootings, the COVID-19 pandemic and the first Trump presidency’s legislative attacks on reproductive freedom.
While 41 million Gen Z members voted in the Nov. 5 election, some Gen Z voters are old enough now to run for office themselves. In The Z Factor’s second episode, Chander interviewed 29-year-old Tennessee State House Rep. Justin J. Pearson, who serves Memphis. In 2023, he was the second youngest person to serve in the Tennessee legislature. Since then, he’s advocated for climate and racial justice and gun violence prevention, introducing more than a dozen gun safety bills over the last year.
An excerpt from Solis:
In 2033, life in the New American Republic is bleak. A xenophobic and racist government has imprisoned thousands of undocumented people in a giant labor camp in the Arizona desert. Black people, Brown people, Asian people and Indigenous people are dumped on the cage floors, their bodies almost broken and their hearts filled with fear. The prisoners are forced to scavenge for a precious and newly discovered chemical in the surrounding mines. This chemical is being used by the president to control the weather. The climate crisis and global drought has pushed the country to the forefront of the water wars that are ravaging the world. The work is grueling, the torture inhumane. This world seems hopeless.
And yet, in the darkest of places is where the fierce light of revolution ignites.
The 2024 elections are a watershed moment for Black women in politics.
As Americans—particularly young people and people of color—become more disillusioned by our political processes, the intentional and strategic advancement of Black women candidates may infuse a much-needed dose of confidence in decency, democracy and dignity in politics.