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 in this biweekly round-up.
This week: A leaked Supreme Court draft decision would overturn landmark Roe v. Wade ruling; new library program will secure access to “banned books” for teens; Oklahoma Heartbeat Act bans abortion after six weeks; Karine Jean-Pierre appointed first Black White House press secretary; and more.
Tag: Gender
Men’s Voices Urgently Needed to Defend Reproductive Rights
Men must leave the sidelines in this national reproductive rights emergency. The stakes are too high to simply declare abortion a “women’s issue.”
U.S. Culture Is So Deeply Patriarchal, We Can’t Even Admit Overturning Roe Is About Women
Focusing on other consequences of overturning of Roe v. Wade makes us forget that the Supreme Court’s decision is really about misogyny.
The ‘Cure’ for Mom Guilt? Affordable Childcare, Paid Family Leave and Equal Pay
Rather than flowers that wilt, what most mothers really want is underlying systemic change that benefits not just them, but their entire family system. Reshma Saujani’s initiative, Marshall Plan for Moms, a campaign of her nonprofit Girls Who Code, has set out to do just that.
“‘Mom guilt’ is the natural result of two totally unattainable societal ideals clashing: the perfect mom and ideal worker.”
Women’s Representation Must-Reads: How Women Without a Choice Fare Far Worse; Nan Whaley Makes History in Ohio
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Brazilians are taking representation into their own hands by power-sharing political seats; there are still too few groups to address the scale of the global gender gap; Nan Whaley wins Democratic nomination for governor, becoming the first woman nominated by a major party in Ohio; and more.
May 2022 Reads for the Rest of Us
Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
Whether you read for knowledge or leisure, books are so important. May is a big month for new releases by women and writers of historically excluded communities; I’ve highlighted 60 of them here, but there are many more. I hope you’ll find some here that will help you reflect and act in whatever ways you can.
SCOTUS Wants Reproductive Rights Left Up to the States—Whose Representatives Are Still Overwhelmingly White and Male
The Supreme Court says it is time to “return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” But state legislatures are overwhelmingly white and male: Women hold just 31 percent of statehouse seats, and only 9 percent are women of color. Rates of women’s representation are much lower in states that will ban abortion if and when Roe is overturned.
Luckily, we know how to transform the demographics of U.S. law-making bodies. We just need the political will.
‘This Is An Emergency’: America Left Reeling in Wake of Likely Roe v. Wade Reversal
Late Monday night, shock waves could be felt across the U.S. after a leaked draft opinion signaled the Supreme Court’s majority decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case concerning a 15-week abortion ban out of Mississippi. The leaked opinion, if and when it takes effect at the end of the Supreme Court’s term (likely in June), represents the biggest blow to women’s constitutional rights in the last 50 years.
Reactions from feminists, lawmakers, reproductive rights advocates and legal scholars have been pouring in as America begins to grapple with the gravity of what abortion access will look like in a post-Roe world.
The Patriarchs’ War on Women
Assaults on women’s and LGBTQ+ rights—and attempts to put women “in their place”—constitute a backlash against feminist progress expanding women’s full inclusion in public life.
As women’s participation becomes more prominent in domestic and international politics, here’s why political sexism and gender policing are also becoming more virulent—and what to do about it.
Gendered Citizenship and the Struggle for Reproductive Rights
The U.S. legal and political tradition has a long history of failing to recognize women’s claims to autonomy as individuals possessing citizenship rights equal to those of men. Now, reproductive rights are in grave danger—but the ERA could change things.