More Than A Magazine, A Movement
When Ms. was launched as a “one-shot” sample insert in New York magazine in December 1971, it was a brazen act of independence. At the time, the fledgling feminist movement was either denigrated or dismissed in the so-called mainstream media. Most magazines marketed to women were limited to advice about finding a husband, saving marriages, raising babies or using the right cosmetics.
To pay tribute to five decades of reporting, rebelling and truth-telling, Ms. gives you From the Vault, made up of some of our favorite feminist classics from the last 50 years of Ms.
Title IX of the Education Amendments Act was signed into law on June 23, 1972—prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity.
From the Spring/Summer 2012 issue of Ms. magazine: ” Title IX’s success is due to the eternal vigilance of the law’s supporters, who continue to defend it through the political process and in the courts.”
From the Winter 2009 issue of Ms. magazine:
The L Word, Showtime’s ground-breaking lesbian TV drama, contained many nods to long-standing feminist issues that have stood the test of time—from crisis pregnancy centers and the anti-abortion movement, to trans inclusion.
From the July/August 1987 issue of Ms. magazine:
“Just as straight feminists have questioned the old rules that say that intercourse always has to lead to babies, lesbians are rebelling against the idea that babies always have to come from intercourse.”
Dr. George Tiller was an abortion provider—one of only three in the U.S. who provided abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy. On May 31, 2009, Tiller was assassinated by an anti-abortion extremist while serving as an usher at his church in Wichita, Kansas. He was known for mantras like “Trust women,” “I’m a woman-educated physician,” and “Attitude is everything.”
From the Summer 2009 issue of Ms. magazine: “Dr. George Tiller planned to be a dermatologist. He could have led a comfortable, secure life with his wife, Jeanne, their four children and, ultimately, their 10 grandchildren. Instead, Tiller decided to enlist in what shouldn’t be—but is—one of the most perilous jobs in the United States: women’s reproductive healthcare.”
From the March 1987 issue of Ms. magazine: “An overwhelming majority of Americans want employer-sponsored childcare programs, regardless of whether or not they have preschool children or are currently employed, according to Ms. magazine’s national survey. … But small percentages of those surveyed indicated that their employer currently offers any of these childcare services.”
Today, 35 years letter, America’s. social safety net remains woefully inadequate: The U.S. is the only country in the developed world that does not offer any paid maternity leave, and it ranks 39th worldwide for overall child health and well-being.
From the June 1984 issue of Ms. magazine:
“So little is known about the nurses of Vietnam that there are not even accurate statistics on how many were there. Official guesstimates ranged anywhere from 7,500 to 55,000. So, it is not surprising that as vets, they often feel invisible. Countless nurses did not know that they had been entitled to GI education benefits. Unfortunately, for most, the 10-year time period for qualification after leaving the service had expired.
“There were more amputees from Vietnam than any other war. … Nurses often suffered a more severe emotional mauling than soldiers who had respites from combat.”
From the July/August 1989 issue of Ms. magazine:
“Sooner or later, corporations will have to yield to the pressure for paid parental leave, flextime and childcare, if only because they’ve become dependent on female talent. The danger is that employers—no doubt quoting Felice Schwartz for legitimation—will insist that the price for such options be reduced pay and withheld promotions, i.e. consignment to the mommy track. Such a policy would place a penalty on parenthood, and the ultimate victims—especially if the policy trickles down to the already low-paid female majority—will of course be children.”
From the Summer 2008 issue of Ms. magazine:
The summer of 1973 was the season of the supermama: kickass Black women such as Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson, who starred in big-screen “Blaxploitation” action films.
The cultural nostalgia for Blaxploitation has never really died. And at the movies in recent years, Black women continue to be underrepresented among the latest kick-butt heroes. Yet my hope for new supermamas survives. The screen and action cinema not only have room for Black women—but need them.
(For more iconic, ground-breaking stories like this, pre-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.)
The year 2013 saw the worst accident in the history of the international garment industry: A clothing factory collapsed outside of Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing at least 1,127 workers, mostly young women, and injuring another 2,500.
“Ten years later, the anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster offers an opportunity to reflect on the progress that has been made and the work that still needs to be done to ensure decent conditions for Bangladesh’s more than four million garment workers.”
On Sept. 27, 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring and founded the modern environmental movement.
Following World War II, the United Stated embarked on a love affair with chemicals. When Carson published Silent Spring at 55, she was dying from breast cancer. Her book alerted the world to the dangers of the toxic chemicals that may have caused her disease. Carson died on April 14, 1964, at 56, never knowing to what extent her work would be vindicated or glimpsing its long-term impact.
