More Than A Magazine, A Movement
As the nationwide formula shortage gained more news coverage, social media outlets like Twitter started buzzing—not with compassion for these scared parents, but rather judgment that these mothers hadn’t breastfed and were therefore at fault for their current predicament.
(Of course, the irony of the formula shortage happening at the same time that the Supreme Court is poised to force American women to carry unwanted pregnancies is also not lost on many.)
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: celebrating AAPI women leaders and exploring AAPI women’s representation; most countries provide part-time childcare access from the age of 3; Senate confirms Lisa Cook to the Federal Reserve Board; in the workplace, “the selection of incompetent men over competent women is the number one problem we need to fix”; and more.
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 in this biweekly round-up.
This week: A leaked Supreme Court draft decision would overturn landmark Roe v. Wade ruling; new library program will secure access to “banned books” for teens; Oklahoma Heartbeat Act bans abortion after six weeks; Karine Jean-Pierre appointed first Black White House press secretary; and more.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia joined all Republicans to oppose a bill that would effectively codify the right to an abortion across the U.S.
Rather than flowers that wilt, what most mothers really want is underlying systemic change that benefits not just them, but their entire family system. Reshma Saujani’s initiative, Marshall Plan for Moms, a campaign of her nonprofit Girls Who Code, has set out to do just that.
“‘Mom guilt’ is the natural result of two totally unattainable societal ideals clashing: the perfect mom and ideal worker.”
There are several obstacles moms face when entering politics—a big one being the lack of universal, affordable childcare.
For moms entering a political career at any level, allowing campaign funds to be used for childcare expenses is a critical first step to leveling the playing field for women candidates to run and win. Campaign-funded childcare means that both men and women candidates would no longer need to factor in childcare costs when deciding to run, which would blow open the doors for more and diverse women candidates to get their names on the ballot.
When we talk about freedom of choice and bodily autonomy, we too often leave out the role economic status plays in attaining this freedom. This is particularly important for Latinx women who face the largest income gap and for Black women, who suffer the highest maternal mortality rate and historically bear the brunt of restrictive reproductive policies.
Passing the expanded child tax credit is certainly not a silver bullet solution to the seemingly endless problems women face in this country. But, it is an important step in our long and painful journey to create a country that offers equity, freedom and autonomy to all.
The Supreme Court says it is time to “return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” But state legislatures are overwhelmingly white and male: Women hold just 31 percent of statehouse seats, and only 9 percent are women of color. Rates of women’s representation are much lower in states that will ban abortion if and when Roe is overturned.
Luckily, we know how to transform the demographics of U.S. law-making bodies. We just need the political will.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) this weekend became the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion, after she led a small delegation of Democratic lawmakers on an unannounced visit to Kyiv. She described the trip as a “solemn opportunity and extraordinary honor.”
Assaults on women’s and LGBTQ+ rights—and attempts to put women “in their place”—constitute a backlash against feminist progress expanding women’s full inclusion in public life.
As women’s participation becomes more prominent in domestic and international politics, here’s why political sexism and gender policing are also becoming more virulent—and what to do about it.
