More Than A Magazine, A Movement
The recent Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action in college admissions was heralded as a victory for “merit-based” selection. The ruling has, however, left an implicit discriminatory practice intact: Male applicants continue to be prioritized over female applicants when needed to balance out the student population. This is no coincidence. It’s the result of a deeply ingrained, albeit often unacknowledged, bias in the admissions process that dates back decades.
An interview with Demelza Baer, director of public policy at the 62-year-old Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:
“We’re making plans, discussing litigation strategies and doing outreach. A lot is happening behind the scenes. … I know that this moment feels like one of the most challenging periods of our generation, but this makes our social justice work more meaningful than ever. Everyone in the civil rights and social justice communities is facing attacks, but this is our moment to lean in. We can’t retreat.”
With federal AI governance on hold, we have a unique opportunity to reassess our approach and address the growing AI divide. Rather than blindly pushing forward with inequitable systems, we can focus on building AI policies that prioritize fairness, access and inclusion. This moment offers a chance to shape AI’s future in a way that truly serves all communities, not just the privileged few.
A fierce feminist resistance is ready to defend women’s rights at the federal level—and creatively expand equality protections in the states. This is the third in a four-part series on the steps activists are taking to fight for our rights amid Trump’s attacks on democracy.
(This is the third in a four-part series on the steps activists are taking to fight for our rights amid Trump administration’s attacks on democracy.)
Here we go again. President Donald Trump has threatened to deport millions of immigrants as soon as he takes office. As of mid-November, he vowed to use the military to deliver on this promise, and for those states and cities so bold to defy his orders, he’ll cut their federal funding. All of it.
What does this mean for schools? Well, with more immigrant students enrolling in more districts across the country, these proposals bring the threat of immigration enforcement closer to the school gates than many school leaders realize. It’s time to act. Fortunately, school leaders have morality, financial logic and the law on their side. In this commentary, we’ll outline why, and then present an example of how.
As we enter 2025 at what seems to be a heyday of impunity for human rights abuses worldwide, autocratic leaders worldwide are taking note. In countries rich and poor, these leaders are flexing their muscles by curtailing our rights—to speak our minds, control our bodies, vote our consciences and have access to fundamental things as safe shelter, clean water and affordable nutrition, education and healthcare.
At WomenStrong International, our partners across the globe are seeing this ramp-up of restrictions up close.
Brides shouldn’t be thinking about homework just before their wedding day. But when I entered into an arranged marriage with a 28-year-old stranger, I was still just a 17-year-old girl who loved her private British school and her books and cricket—and so I found myself thinking about a creative-writing assignment I had recently finished. I’d written a story about a young woman who wore jewelry in the shapes of snakes. I wrote that they suddenly came to life and they slithered up to her throat, strangling her.
As someone who was forced into a life I never chose, I am appalled that women, who are more empowered than ever, are effectively choosing a life without choice—putting themselves in a prison of their own making.
Although she won a scholarship to Mississippi State University, two hours’ drive away, Shamya Jones couldn’t get there because she had a new baby and no car. So she enrolled instead at a local community college, then transferred to the four-year campus closest to her home in the rural Mississippi Delta: Delta State University.
She planned to major in digital media arts, but before she could start, Delta State eliminated that major, along with 20 other degree programs, including history, English, chemistry and music.
“They’re cutting off so much, and teachers [are] leaving,” Jones said. “It’s like we’re not getting the help or benefits we need.” The cuts “take away from us, our education.”
That kind of frustration is growing. Rural Americans already have far less access to higher education than their counterparts in cities and suburbs. Now the comparatively few universities that serve rural students are eliminating large numbers of programs and majors, blaming plummeting enrollment and financial crises. Many rural private, nonprofit colleges are closing altogether.
You’re a student at Emory H. Markle Middle School. You’re trans, and your teachers aren’t allowed to use your correct name or pronouns. They’ll be punished if they address you with any identifier other than what you’ve been legally assigned. LGBTQ-inclusive books have been banned. A transgender student at a nearby school was killed in a hate crime earlier this year.
The gender-neutral bathroom is the only place in your school that brings you refuge from the transphobia swirling around you. Then, the school cuts a window into the bathroom wall, and everyone can see in.
The school district’s board president stated the reasoning for the window was to “better monitor for a multitude of prohibited activities such as any possible vaping, drug use, bullying or absenteeism.” The kicker? The windows were only installed in Markle’s gender-inclusive bathrooms.
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.