Climate Change

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.

Why a Global Treaty Would Help End Violence Against Women and Girls

PUBLISHED 3/14/2023 by

Ms. contributor Michelle Onello and co-founder of Every Woman Treaty, Lisa Shannon, discuss the causes and consequences of the recent rise in violence against women and girls, why a global treaty is necessary to meet their needs worldwide, and the prospects for moving forward with a treaty in the current political climate.

“In the absence of a global framework, we are allowing generations of frontline women’s rights activists to be stalked, harassed, beaten, murdered and chased out of their countries and forced to live in exile.”

Girl Scout Thin Mints Are Putting Our Planet on Thin Ice

PUBLISHED 3/13/2023 by

In an effort to squeeze profits from cookie sales, the Girl Scouts national headquarters has opted for cheap ingredients, cheap packaging and cheap prizes to incentivize sales. The real cost of these decisions comes at a high price—and in the end, we will all pay for the environmental damages.

The unsustainable choices of today’s Cookie Program undermine the purpose of a beloved, long-standing American custom.

The Ms. Q&A: Jenny Odell on ‘Saving Time’ and Escaping the Clock

PUBLISHED 3/7/2023 by

When Jenny Odell talks about “saving time,” she doesn’t mean what you might think—finding ways to live more “efficiently,” to optimize your life, to fit more hours into every day. 

In her new book, ‘Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock,’ the ‘How to do Nothing’ author explores the clock as a tool of domination from the earliest days of global conquest and colonization to the modern-day work week which seeks to colonize our minds and attention spans, in search of a conception of time that isn’t painful—but rather, liberatory. 

Reads for the Rest of Us: The Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2023

PUBLISHED 1/25/2023 by

I have spent the last few months scouring catalogs and websites, receiving hundreds of books and even more emails from authors, publicists and publishers, reading your book Tweets and DMs, all to find out what books are coming out in 2023 that I think you, my exceptional, inquisitive and discerning Ms readers, will want to hear about. 

Here’s your TBR (to be read) for the year. Enjoy!

Sound the Alarm—Sweden Drops ‘Feminist’ and Returns to Mere ‘Foreign Policy’

PUBLISHED 1/19/2023 by

While the Swedish government has reassured both domestic and international stakeholders that removing ‘feminist’ from the official description of its foreign policy will not affect its commitment to gender equality, there are many who mourn this change.

As feminist activists and officials working all over the world to advance this approach, we mourn the loss of the world’s first feminist foreign policy, an effort that has, in our view, had an important global impact.

As the U.S. Looks to Revamp the Farm Bill, Women Must Be at the Table

PUBLISHED 1/18/2023 by

While the U.S. has created an omnibus Farm Bill for nearly a century, our mothers—especially when Native or women of color—have never had a say in where our government’s farm support money goes. Not until recently.

Now the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry is under the leadership of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). Her hearings will mark arguments on the horizon we’d all be wise to notice. A whole new generation of younger, female, Indigenous, Black, Latinx and queer farmers are contending with land prices out of reach, and old attitudes that minimize the healthier, more sustainable production they seek.

Landmark Global Biodiversity Agreement Enshrines Rights of Indigenous Peoples—Providing Hope for Bolivia’s Guarani

PUBLISHED 1/11/2023 by

After more than four years of negotiations, on Dec.19, 2022, nearly 200 nations adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework—a binding agreement to protect at least 30 percent of the world’s biodiversity within 2030. The agreement represents a significant step forward towards rights-based, gender just and socially equitable biodiversity conservation.

There is hope that the agreement will help to return stolen lands to communities and ensure the rights of Indigenous peoples—like the Guaraní of Laguna Chica, Bolivia, located in the Yaku Agüa territory by Bolivia’s southern border with Argentina.