Global Women’s Rights

Stories covering the fight for gender-based rights across all regions of the world and stories of international coalitions advocating for global feminist change.

Beyond American Exceptionalism: What the Success of the Green Wave Can Teach U.S. Abortion Activists

PUBLISHED 5/21/2026 by and

While the idea of the U.S. as a bastion of moral superiority has always been a myth—evident, for example, in efforts to shield Jim Crow laws from scrutiny in the founding of the United Nations—the overturning of Roe v. Wade is one of the latest reminders of this fallacy, particularly as it pertains to global health and women’s rights. It is also a cautionary tale for the rest of the world about the fragility of reproductive rights.

As states across the U.S. have banned abortion post-Dobbs, advocates and experts here have been forced to look outside of our borders for assistance, recognizing that other nations have recently mobilized to legalize abortion and have much to teach us, particularly those that have done so by enshrining abortion as a human right.

Ms. Global: From Ukraine to Lebanon to Sudan, Women Are Bearing the Brunt of Escalating Global Conflict

PUBLISHED 5/21/2026 by

Around the world, escalating armed conflict, political repression and humanitarian collapse are reshaping daily life for women and girls—often with devastating consequences. From drone warfare in Sudan, to internet blackouts in Iran, to attacks on healthcare infrastructure in Lebanon and Gaza, women are navigating intensifying threats while also sustaining families, communities and survival networks under extraordinary strain. At the same time, women-led organizations and feminist movements confronting these crises increasingly face funding cuts, political repression and shrinking civic space even as demand for their work grows.

Globally, over 676 million women and girls live within 50 kilometers of armed conflict, representing about 17 percent of the female population. This staggering figure—a 74 percent increase since 2010—is tracked and analyzed by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security in partnership with PRIO.

But we also know: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the world’s most urgent crises. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide—and the gendered realities shaping conflict, displacement, political repression and survival.

Imagining a World Where No Mothers Die

PUBLISHED 5/8/2026 by

More than 700 women die each day, on average, from causes linked to pregnancy or childbirth. Almost all of these deaths are preventable. 

To honor the world’s mothers, we asked midwives about their memories of helping women survive the journey to motherhood. And we asked how the world would be different if no woman died in the act of creating life.

We Must Hold the Line

PUBLISHED 4/18/2026 by

There’s a moment in every struggle when retreat seems like the only rational option. When dictators grow bolder and democracies grow weaker; when the funding dries up and the threats are mounting.

For even the staunchest of human rights defenders, this is often the moment when the temptation to step back, to compromise, to “wait for better times” becomes almost irresistible. But it’s also the moment when it’s most crucial that we hold the line.

Holding the line doesn’t mean mindless stubbornness, or a refusal to adapt. Instead, it means refusing to compromise on core principles, regardless of the circumstances—a collective effort that requires each of us.

To human rights defenders everywhere: When funding disappears, innovate. When governments threaten you, document everything. When allies waiver, remind them what’s at stake.

Stop Calling Hungary an Authoritarian Playbook

PUBLISHED 4/11/2026 by | UPDATED 4/13/2026 at 7:33 A.M. PT

A popular explanation for today’s attacks on academic freedom is that the Trump administration is following an authoritarian playbook, with Hungary under Viktor Orbán cast as the model. This metaphor suggests the future is inevitable. It’s not. And now, with Orbán voted out of power after 16 years, that assumption looks even more fragile.

For the feminist scholars who experienced—and resisted—Hungary’s attacks on higher education, the idea that Orbán fashioned a playbook that others are now copying misses the point.

Instead, what we are seeing is an international illiberal movement that circulates money, ideas and strategies across borders. When Hungarian politicians attack “gender” and higher education, they use these concepts as a shorthand for rejecting the liberal world order.

That means Hungary’s approach should serve as a warning, but not a script.

The attacks succeed when the conditions are ripe. And those conditions are not fixed. As Hungary’s recent election makes clear, expecting the worst won’t save U.S. higher education. Treating democratic backsliding as inevitable risks obscuring the very possibility of change.

In Iran, Iraq and the U.S., Women Speak Out Against State Repression

PUBLISHED 4/4/2026 by | UPDATED 4/7/2026 at 12:13 P.M. PT

Internationally acclaimed Iranian human rights attorney and women’s rights advocate Nasrin Sotoudeh has been arrested by the Iranian regime. Her whereabouts are currently unknown. Our hearts are with Sotoudeh and her family, including her husband Reza Khandan, who has been detained in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison since December 2024 for supporting her work for women’s equality.

Meanwhile in Baghdad, an American freelance journalist has been kidnapped. Shelly Kittleson, who had built her freelance career reporting from the Middle East for years, is known among colleagues for her determined, on-the-ground reporting and willingness to go where others would not. On Tuesday, she was taken by two unknown men, after learning of threats to her safety from militias. 

Time and time again, it is women who speak out in the face of state repression—whether they are doing so as journalists speaking truth to power, lawyers fighting for the rights of the oppressed, or everyday women taking to the streets in defiance of regimes that seek to strip them of their autonomy and human rights.

Juliana Stratton’s Big Senate Win, Kristi Noem’s Next Steps and the Origins of Women’s History Month

PUBLISHED 3/21/2026 by

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:
—Illinois primaries feature a big U.S. Senate win for Juliana Stratton.
—The IPU/U.N. Women Report on Women in Politics presents a sobering global snapshot.
—Mississippi will remain the only state that has never sent a woman to the U.S. House.
—Ranked-choice voting is being used for student elections at over 100 colleges and universities.

… and more.

They Dare, They Can, They Will: The History of Iceland’s Decades-Strong Women’s Strike Movement

PUBLISHED 3/21/2026 by

On Oct. 24, 1975, 90 percent of the women in Iceland refused to go to work, care for their children or cook for their families. Instead, thousands gathered in Reykjavík and villages nationwide to demand gender equality.

Schools closed. Flights were canceled. Businesses shuttered. Factories came to a standstill. Phone service was off.

Men called it “The Long Friday.” Organizers called it Kvennafrídagurinn: Women’s Day Off.