More Than A Magazine, A Movement
A cultural region of 20 countries and territories extending from South America to Central America, including Mexico and most Caribbean islands. Most have a history of Spanish or Portuguese colonialism and a large presence of Spanish, Portuguese or French languages.
Books provide us not only with necessary information but also with the respite we need from the constant labor of securing our rights and humanity in all the ways they are under attack.
I hope of the 33 books here, you’ll find one that inspires, relaxes or distracts you for a little while.
The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Biden administration has the authority to terminate the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as Remain in Mexico, which requires some refugees to wait outside of U.S. borders while their cases are heard. The Biden administration must now immediately take all possible steps to end MPP.
Those waiting in Mexico, like the desperate women we met who are fleeing gender-based violence at home, must have an opportunity to pursue their claims from within the U.S. with the help of local organizations and legal service providers.
In a grim moment nationally, let us look to Latin America for the sustained will to resist and overturn abortion bans.
Most notably, U.S. reproductive rights organizers should think of legal and cultural campaigns that can move across states. Though combatting abortion bans in the U.S. will be difficult because states exert their own jurisdiction over abortion laws, we can create a national movement and anticipate the challenges ahead through learning from Latin American feminists, especially the resilient people of El Salvador since 1998.
Nearly all the Ukrainians fleeing their war-torn country are women and children, a regional tragedy that mirrors a global truth: Refugee crises are women’s crises. And as women’s crises, they demand responses informed by gender-specific needs — including crucial attention to menstrual health and hygiene management.
From Mexico to Benin to Colombia, feminists around the globe have recent experience fighting against anti-abortion efforts and winning. They shared five lessons from the frontlines of the global fight for bodily autonomy and reproductive rights that can help the U.S. prepare to fight for legal and accessible abortion.
Since 1994, 60 countries have liberalized their abortion laws. In contrast, the United States is experiencing profound retrogression on the right to abortion. So too is this occurring in other countries where democratic institutions have eroded, such as Poland and Nicaragua.
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.
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.
It is distressing to think that the United States, once a global leader in women’s rights, could erase 50 years of progress in a single moment. We’ve seen how anti-choice policies in the U.S. tend to embolden the opposition around the world.
We stand in solidarity with the millions of women in the U.S. who could see their reproductive rights cruelly stripped away, and with the many more across the globe who may see their national abortion laws tighten as a result.
