More Than A Magazine, A Movement
“The most powerful and trusted messenger you have in reaching your community is you.”
“Half this country is female, and half is composed of people of color. Until those exclusions are gone, we are not living in a true democracy.”
“Keep it moving. That’s the only way.”
“Anyone can lead, especially on the issues that they care about.”
Some thoughts to keep us going.
First ladies, while unofficial in title, have been unofficially tasked with hosting state dinners, advocating for social and philanthropic causes, and managing the White House’s image, without ever getting paid or recognized the way they should be. It’s a microcosm of the way our society still places these expectations on women in domestic spaces. Even though this labor is essential, it is often taken for granted.
Now, imagine a man stepping into this role. If a first gentleman were to perform these duties, it might force the country to rethink why these responsibilities were so heavily feminized in the first place. And even more so, it might make people question why this type of labor—whether done in the White House or in everyday homes—has been undervalued for so long.
In 2020, the Raising Haiti Foundation began funding the provision of small loans ($25-$50) to 50 women clients in two communities: Medor and Sarrazin. Most of the women use their loans to become entrepreneurs, or to expand their current businesses, selling goods in local markets. Some use them to purchase livestock or crop seeds, improving their farming outputs.
This interview with recipient and entrepreneur Marimène Tijuste exemplifies some of the achievements of the microcredit clients.
“Having more and different types of products to sell in my business has changed my life. I have more clients. I earn a profit. I can feed my family. … Everything has changed for me!”
How is it that an independent business executive goes from a full-time position in the C-suite to a full-time position in the kitchen, out of submissive devotion to her husband? If you’ve recently spent time on TikTok or Instagram, you may have wrestled with this question.
Tradwife influencers are right to point out the emptiness, precarity and dissatisfaction of neoliberal life, and the appeal of the alternative they offer is clear. But much of the rosy picture they paint exists only on our iPhones and not in reality. Domestic labor is neither slow nor peaceful.
In 2021, the Century Foundation published its first care policy report card, “Care Matters,” which graded each state on a number of supportive family policies and worker rights and protections, such as paid sick and paid family leave, pregnant worker fairness, and the domestic worker bill of rights. The 2021 report card revealed the tremendous gaps in state care policies and a fragmented and insufficient system of care workers and families in most states.
This year’s update, co-authored with Caring Across Generations, takes another look at how states are doing.
“A little more than 100 years ago … rape served not only to further [the Black woman’s] oppression but also as a means of terrorizing the entire Black community. It placed brutal emphasis on the fact that Black slaves were indeed the property of the white master. … The social incentive given to rape is woven into the logic of the institutions of this society. It is an extremely efficient means of keeping women in a state of fear of rape, or of the possibility of it.”
( For more ground-breaking stories like this, order 50 YEARS OF Ms.: THE BEST OF THE PATHFINDING MAGAZINE THAT IGNITED A REVOLUTION (Alfred A. Knopf)—a collection of the most audacious, norm-breaking coverage Ms. has published.)
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: Federal judge weakens the Voting Rights Act; Congress fails to fully fund WIC; Attorney General Merrick Garland defends women traveling to receive abortion care; Jill Biden launches an Initiative of Women’s Health Research; American women are living six years longer than men.
Our work as street vendors seems invisible—and up to 2 billion workers worldwide are not recognized as workers and do not have labor rights. We are the workers of the informal economy: the street and market vendors, the hawkers, the mobile traders and the domestic- and home-based workers, many of whom are women sustaining households by themselves.
Whether in the rain or scorching heat, we sell affordable products to workers bustling to and from their jobs in urban centers, because we cannot afford not to work.
Domestic work in America has been a long-time battleground between the sexes. Further complicating the issue is that women and women of color make up a majority of domestic workers: 90.2 percent are women and 51.3 percent are Black, Hispanic, or Asian American and Pacific Islander. There is no honest and accurate way to talk about housework and childcare without also discussing the negative effects on women.
One day, perhaps the world will act as though domestic work is a collective responsibility and effort that requires no self-help books, a product line or a Netflix series.
September is Women in Medicine Month, when we celebrate formidable and inspiring female physicians. But each year, one group is largely neglected: the women who help us to succeed.
Raising the status of the domestic and childcare workers who help us is critical to the next generation of women pursuing careers in medicine.