More Than A Magazine, A Movement
The U.S. Congress is the country’s legislative body and is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Read stories here about elections to these bodies, the laws they introduce and the ways lawmakers shape peoples’ lives.
Last month, the Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments in a case that could set off a new era of abortion bans across much of the country. December also marked the start of President Biden’s Democracy Summit.
Yes, the U.S. faces an unprecedented crisis for the right to abortion. Before its next Democracy Summit, the Biden administration should make a real commitment to ending all anti-abortion policies that cause the U.S. to fall short of its democratic aspirations.
It’s clear the medical profession needs women. Patient mortality and hospital readmission rates decrease when women physicians care for them, compared to their male counterparts.
But women in medicine need support, especially as they embark on parenting. Among physician parents, women are more likely to be responsible for household tasks and schooling or childcare compared to men during the pandemic. The women also experienced greater depressive and anxiety symptoms.
It’s been a hell of a year for feminists.
But we didn’t sit around. We took to the streets, to protest the attacks on our right to decide what happens to our own bodies. To protest the lack of progress on voting rights, immigration, police and gun reform, and on finally enshrining the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. We wrote letters, sent messages, tweet stormed, rallied, called Congress, and gave money to support our causes in a year when budgets were tight—because we knew it was the right thing to do.
Happy new year from all of us at Ms., and thank you for sticking with us through the hard times.
As 2021 comes to a close, Ms. asked some of our favorite feminists—from abortion activists and providers to climate crisis specialists and environmentalists—what they see as top priorities and what changes they’re hoping for in 2022.
“Ms. readers: We are the answer—the future we’ve been waiting for! And that begins right now, on the eve of 2022.”
At the end of 2021, 80 percent of President Biden’s confirmed judges have been women—compared to 42 percent of President Obama’s federal judges and a mere 24 percent of President Trump’s.
It will take a sustained commitment to diversity to actually achieve a federal judiciary that reflects the American people. Even with President Biden’s diverse judges confirmed this year, the federal judiciary is still approximately 72 percent white and 65 percent men. The numbers are moving in the right direction, but we have a long way to go.
In a confounding move, Sen. Joe Manchin decided to derail the Build Back Better bill in a Fox News appearance Sunday night. It’s not difficult to prove how wrong Manchin and the 50 GOP senators opposed to Build Back Better are. But how do we enact progress when 51 people can stand in the way of what the majority of us want?
As families hope Democratic leadership will find a different path to pass Build Back Better policies like childcare or paid leave, another revolutionary policy is just beginning to enter mainstream awareness: guaranteed income.
Guaranteed income involves regular payments directed to specific marginalized groups, as a way to address economic inequities caused by systemic racism and sexism. Economic justice organizations like the Magnolia Mother’s Trust argue that a federal guaranteed income program would not just help low-income families pay their bills, but also reduce financial stress and set their families up for long-term success.
On Thursday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lifted a long-standing requirement that physicians must distribute the abortion pill mifepristone to patients in person, but left in place several burdensome restrictions that continue to unnecessarily restrict and stigmatize this safe medication, say advocates. The decision came in response to a case filed by the ACLU on behalf of abortion providers and medical groups.
“It’s purely political. These pills should not only be in pharmacies, they should be available over-the-counter. But instead, years later, we’re still in a place where people think of this as a drug that is so dangerous it has to be in a black box.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says that despite rare bipartisan backing, “four men, in a closed room” blocked long-sought changes to how the military handles sexual assault and other major justice issues.
A little-known provision in the Build Back Better Act being negotiated in Congress could help catalyze the full federal repeal of the subminimum wage for people with disabilities.