As our regular readers know, over the past several months Ms. and our publisher, the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), have been waging a campaign to get the FBI to change the archaic “forcible rape” definition that’s used in the annual Uniform Crime Report (UCR). We teamed up with Change.org in June to help get the word […]
Feminist Majority Foundation
The Feminist Majority Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to women’s equality, reproductive health and non-violence and the publisher of Ms. FMF utilizes research and action to empower women economically, socially and politically. In addition to Ms., projects of FMF include the National Clinic Access Project, Feminist Campus, the Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan: Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls and Girls Learn International.
Remembering Dr. Wangari Maathai: “We Must Persist”
Fearless human rights and anti-poverty crusader. Visionary environmental leader. Global women’s rights activist. Advocate for democracy. More than one phrase is required to begin to sum up the contributions the late Dr. Wangari Maathai made to the global community through her tireless work for a more just and sustainable world. Born in Nyeri, Kenya in […]
The Cost of a Non-Diverse Media
“I had journalists say to me: ‘I saw the women on the field. But they were so pitiful-looking that I didn’t film them,’” recalls Gini Reticker, director of the 2008 documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which documents women’s peace efforts in Liberia. While she had trouble finding footage of Liberian women’s peace actions, […]
Don’t Lionize Coburn Yet
The debt-ceiling debate has done little good for the U.S. Congress’ reputation in the eyes of Americans (or the world), but there’s one senator for whom it was political manna from heaven: Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn. The arch-conservative’s return to bipartisan debt-negotiation group the Gang of Six prompted a media lovefest: “Mr. Coburn has many […]
A Loss for Dolores Huerta, And the World
I was distraught to learn last night of the unexpected death of Richard Estrada Chavez, the life partner of my dear friend Dolores Huerta, who serves on the Feminist Majority Foundation board of directors. Richard was the younger brother of Cesar Chavez, who cofounded the United Farm Workers (UFW) with Dolores. Richard was a tireless […]
Orlando Update: Clinics Remain Open in Face of Anti-Abortion “Siege”
The weeklong Operation Rescue/Operation Save America (OR/OSA) “siege” of Orlando has just two days left, and area women’s health care providers have successfully remained open and operating throughout. The anti-abortion extremist group targeted seven different clinics over the course of the week, surrounding offices and harassing both staff and patients. Organizers from the Feminist Majority […]
Almost 100,000 Have Told the FBI That Rape Is Rape. Have You?
Nearly 100,000 people have signed onto the Ms. and Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) campaign to change the FBI’s definition of “forcible” rape. After a Ms. investigative report found that the FBI’s fundamentally flawed definition excludes hundreds of thousands of rapes from the yearly Uniform Crime Report, Ms. and FMF started a Change.org petition urging the […]
Orlando “Siege” Fails to Draw Protesters, Yet Stalking Continues
A planned siege of seven Orlando-area abortion clinics by Operation Rescue/Operation Save America (OR/OSA) began this Saturday, but failed to draw the “hundreds” of anti-abortion protesters that organizers had called for. Only an estimated 40 or so individuals took part in anti-abortion protests Saturday, Sunday and Monday at the clinics–and that number included children brought […]
Anti-Abortion Extremists Descend on Orlando, FL and Germantown, MD
Despite a conviction just days ago for criminally stalking a Charlotte, N.C. physician, Operation Rescue/Operation Save America leader Flip Benham and his followers have traveled to Orlando, Fla., this weekend to stage a week-long “siege” of seven Orlando-area abortion clinics. In the past, such events have included targeting abortion providers–and stalking them–at their homes, as well as larger […]
Apparently Richard Dawkins Is a Jerk and Miscarrying Is a Crime: Editors’ Picks, July 3-July 9
World-renowned evolutionary biologist/atheist/smarty-pants Richard Dawkins showed his true colors this week (which, one assumes, are the colors of the official flag of privilege) when he instigated a comment war with feminists after leaving a particularly clueless and vile sarcastic response to a post on activist Rebecca Watson’s blog. The Atlantic Wire has the play-by-play. A […]