Tag: Feminist Academia and Women’s Studies

How Feminists and Academics Are Fighting the Right’s ‘Anti-Woke’ Agenda

There are now 28 states that either limit how teachers can discuss issues about race and gender, or are considering passing legislation. Feminist teachers and academics have been viewing with increased alarm, anger and frustration these legislative efforts by Republicans to limit our academic freedom, censor the teaching of African American and gender studies, and place us in an untenable situation where we are forced to defend ourselves and our livelihood. The attack is personal. It is rooted in anti-Black racism, patriarchy, transphobia, whiteness and xenophobia—a propagandistic argument designed to whitewash our collective history. It is not simply a debate about curriculum; it is a fight about the direction of this country. It will not stop unless we stop it.

Join our teach-in at 12 p.m. ET on May 3.

Jennifer Baumgardner’s New Journal ‘LIBER’ Marries Women’s History and Contemporary Feminism

Jennifer Baumgardner, founder and editor of LIBER: A Feminist Review, believes that a literary journal can be a place where women’s history intersects with today’s most pressing feminist debates. Baumgardner and Charis Caputo, LIBER’s senior editor, aim to include “a lot of diferent perspecives and be a big feminist tent for as many people as possible.”

Teaching the Deep Roots of Abortion in America

Having honest conversations about our nation’s history in and outside the classroom is as urgent as ever. Despite Alito’s protestations, abortion has been and will continue to be an integral part of our nation’s past, present and future.

A closer look at American women’s past and present—where nearly one in four women obtain an abortion by the age of 45—illustrates that abortion has deep roots, which began centuries before Roe v. Wade and will continue long after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

What Our Primate Ancestors Can Teach Us About Dismantling the Patriarchy: The Ms. Q&A with Diane Rosenfeld

A new book shines an intriguing new light on the possibilities for alliances among women in the ongoing struggle to end men’s violence against women by examining the social organization of one of our closest primate relatives. In The Bonobo Sisterhood, Harvard Law School professor Diane Rosenfeld shows how we have much to learn from the bonobos about how to eliminate male sexual coercion.  

“Patriarchy is not inevitable; the bonobos are living proof of that.”

Let’s Imagine the South as Place for Feminism

Being a feminist in South Carolina isn’t easy, and it is sometimes nice to imagine fleeing to some hypothetical feminist haven. But I know I won’t. My family is here, and I have a job and friends and a community I love.

We’ll do more to fight the people that are responsible for the oppression here if we insist on seeing the South as a queer place, where the feminist fights are ongoing. Join us.

Rest in Power: R. Dianne Bartlow, Emmy-Winning Producer and Director

The Ms. community, family, friends and colleagues recently said goodbye to R. Dianne Bartlow—professor, scholar, feminist writer, Emmy-winning producer and director. She’s left too soon, at the age of 67 after a short battle with lung cancer.

I remember Dianne for her easygoing temperament and her patience. Dianne was humble and down-to-earth, which is why I was surprised to learn of her accomplishments as an award-winning television writer-producer.

With SisterMentors, Dr. Shireen Lewis Is Building a Fierce Future for Women and Girls of Color in Education

Two decades ago, Ms. had the honor of interviewing the founder of SisterMentors, Dr. Shireen Lewis, in its Summer 2000 issue—and here we are again, just as SisterMentors celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Lewis has dedicated her entire professional life to creating and growing SisterMentors, a nonprofit organization that helps women and girls of color in the education system. Through her work, she is empowering young women and girls of color to overcome deep-seated institutional inequities in the education system.

“I see Black and Brown women and girls as having a major role to play in helping to save the world. And we’re not just talking academia, but leaders in the public and the private sector.”

Preserving Our Legacy: ‘An Important Piece of Feminist History Is at Risk of Being Lost’

In the early ’80s, Martha Albertson Fineman launched the Feminism and Legal Theory Project at University of Wisconsin Law School. For decades, the project has brought together scholars and activists from the U.S. and abroad to explore the most pressing contemporary legal issues affecting women. In multiple-day sessions, organized around specific, evolving sets of issues, feminists presented working papers and debated women’s legal rights.

Fineman recorded and preserved these groundbreaking conversations, as well as the working papers and other written material prepared for these sessions. But she is now struggling to find a home for this invaluable archive of the first generation of feminist legal thinkers.

Teaching Students to Write Their Rage

“The Power of Feminist Writing,” a new college course at the University of Washington, Bothell, emboldened young feminist writers during a painful school term.

“I am optimistic that they will mobilize their new skills and write their rage against the most misogynist turn they will hopefully ever see in their lifetime,” said Dr. Julie Shayne, after facing a term of mass shootings and the overturning of constitutional abortion rights with her students.