More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Stories covering the fight for gender-based rights across all regions of the world and stories of international coalitions advocating for global feminist change.
The Trump administration’s recent attempt to freeze federal funding has sparked renewed debate about government efficiency and program effectiveness. While the freeze was quickly reversed following public outcry, it highlights a fundamental tension: how to balance fiscal responsibility with essential support for vulnerable populations. There’s a proven approach that could satisfy both imperatives: place-based programming.
On Friday morning, the staffers at a half dozen U.S.-funded medical facilities in Sudan who care for severely malnourished children had a choice to make: Defy President Donald Trump’s order to immediately stop their operations or let up to 100 babies and toddlers die.
They chose the children.
In spite of the order, they will keep their facilities open for as long as they can, according to three people with direct knowledge of the situation.
As crucial days and hours pass, aid groups say Trump’s order has already caused irreparable harm. And amidst the storm of funding cuts, USAID—a crucial independent organization that supports millions of people worldwide—is under direct attack from Trump and Elon Musk. “USAID is a criminal organization,” Musk wrote on X on Sunday. “Time for it to die.”
Women are at a historic moment financially. In 2020, McKinsey reported that by 2030, $30 trillion of assets would be passed down into the hands of women—called “The Great Wealth Transfer.” For the first time in history, women will have a serious seat as a cohort to make financial decisions and donations.
As wealth and power increasingly grow in the hands of a few, it is clear how the world of philanthropy has been overwhelmingly shaped and guided by men. However, with today’s pressing global challenges—from economic inequality to climate change—if women philanthropists don’t step up now, when will they? It’s time for women to not just participate, but to lead with bold, transformative giving.
For the first time in its history, the United Nations Human Rights Committee recognized in a Jan. 20 ruling that denying an abortion to a child is not just a denial of choice but an imposition of pregnancy and forced motherhood that irreversibly disrupts their health, well-being and life trajectory.
This landmark decision represents a crucial shift in how the international community addresses the intersection of children’s rights, reproductive rights and gender justice.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: a look at the women being considered for the Democratic nomination in the 2028 presidential race; Portland’s new electoral system from the perspective of a first-time candidate; Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s determination to be a voice of reason within her party; Florida adds a woman to the Senate; Rep. Sarah McBride navigates her first month in office with grace; and Australia’s leadership on policies and practices that advance women.
MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.
Since our last report…
—Abortion bans are driving young people out of restrictive states.
—Brittany Watts, the Ohio woman who was arrested last year after miscarrying at home, has filed a lawsuit against several members of hospital staff.
—Trump has launched a nationwide immigration enforcement operation, beginning in Chicago.
—Republicans ramp up attacks on the FACE Act.
… and more.
Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
This week:
—Lifelong feminist, activist and former president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, died.
—A new report is sobering for anyone who have assumed increased women’s leadership was inevitable.
—Alaska’s legislative session begins, where women hold the majority of seats in the House and bipartisanship is flourishing.
—In New Mexico, women lawmakers have changed the legislative culture, addressing sexual harassment and championing policies to reduce child poverty and protect reproductive rights.
… and more.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday reinstating the global gag rule, known as the “Mexico City policy,” which prohibits overseas groups from collecting U.S. aid if they provide abortion, counsel on abortion or advocate for abortion rights.
During his first presidential term, one of Trump’s earliest actions was the reinstatement of the global gag rule—a wholly expected move from a Republican president. But he also inaugurated an unprecedented expansion of the rule’s reach … red-flagging what likely lies ahead.
Fueling the sense of urgency, Project 2025 calls for the further expansion of the gag rule beyond foreign health aid to include “all foreign assistance, including humanitarian aid.” This expansion would increase the affected funding from about $7.3 billion to about $51 billion. Project 2025’s vision of an expanded global gag rule would also, for the first time, include foreign governments in addition to NGOs within its prohibitive sweep.
Only the permanent rescission of the global gag rule will jettison this impending threat to the sexual and reproductive rights and well-being of women around the globe.
On Wednesday, Marco Rubio appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing as the next secretary of state. Rubio is expected to be confirmed without any serious opposition, thanks to the rarity of Cabinet nominee rejections and public support for Rubio, even among Democratic senators. (Rubio served for years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a senator from Florida, and Democrats like Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Cory Booker of New Jersey greeted him warmly on Wednesday.)
But make no mistake—Rubio’s history of hostility toward reproductive autonomy and his recent embrace of “America First” nationalism heralds a State Department that decimates women’s health, human rights and well-being.
Across the 2000s, a series of child sex exploitation cases affected British towns, including Telford, Rochdale, Oxford and Rotherham, scarring the lives of hundreds of children. In 2011, Times journalist Andrew Norfolk reported that networks—so-called “grooming gangs”—of largely British Asian men of Pakistani heritage had trafficked and raped hundreds of mainly girls and young women. Elon Musk—the billionaire owner of social media platform X and incoming lead on US government efficiency—has, it seems, just found out about this devastating national scandal.
Musk has aligned himself with a gendered narrative: It is men’s duty to protect women—even when it means breaking rules or using force. This gender binary—strong men must be ready to use force to protect weak women, especially from hostile alien men—is the core narrative of patriarchal, nationalist, ultra nationalist and also Nazi groups.