'Looking Back Moving Forward' Bonus Content Archives

‘In Whose Interests Are We Fighting?’ What Historian Premilla Nadasen Learned About Economic Justice from the Domestic Workers’ Rights Movement

Nadasen, who teaches history at Barnard College, offered lessons from the domestic workers’ movement for the current moment in the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward. “We, as feminists today, like domestic workers in the 1970s and in the early 2000s,” she told me, “need to think outside the box.”

Listen to the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, “Women Can’t Afford to Wait for a Feminist Economic Future (with Premilla Nadasen, Rakeen Mabud and Lenore Palladino, Aisha Nyandoro, Gaylynn Burroughs, and Dolores Huerta)” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

‘If You’re Not Centering the People Who Are Most Impacted, Your Policy Solution Will Fall Apart’: Gaylynn Burroughs Is Fighting for Economic Justice at the Intersections

Carmen Rios

Burroughs, the vice president of education and workplace justice at the National Women’s Law Center, connected the dots between poverty, policy and culture change in the latest episode of the Ms. Studios podcast Looking Back, Moving Forward. “Once you start seeing these problems as being problems that policy can solve,” she told me, “a whole world opens up.”

‘Poverty Is a Systemic Failing, Not an Individual Failing’: Aisha Nyandoro Is Seeding a Movement to Liberate Financial Capital and Support Black Moms’ Economic Freedom

Carmen Rios

The founding CEO of Springboard to Opportunities, home to the Magnolia Mother’s Trust guaranteed income program, called out how our economy has left the women she serves behind in the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward—and how our narratives around poverty and deservedness shape what’s possible in the fight for economic justice.

“What would it look like if we gave Black mamas living in affordable housing the financial resources that they needed to be the author of their own lives—trusting that they know better than anyone else what it is that they need for themselves and their families to be successful?”

Why Dolores Huerta Is Hopeful About the Fight for a Feminist Future: ‘We’re Going to Be Able to Overcome’

Carmen Rios

Dolores Huerta has spent 70 years at the frontlines of the intertwined fights for economic justice and women’s rights. Huerta has pioneered campaigns to expand political representation for women and people of color; advance policies that improve the lives of women, LGBTQ+ folks, farmworkers, communities of color, and the poor; and spark dialogue around the intersectional fight for economic justice, and the ways it is intertwined with our democracy.

“This is a very, very scary time—and god knows it’s a time for women to rise up!” Huerta told Ms.

Poverty Is a Policy Choice—and Women Deserve More

Carmen Rios

In the third episode of the Ms. Studios podcast Looking Back, Moving Forward, economists and advocates break down how our economy is leaving women behind and lay out strategies for advancing a feminist economic future.

“Poverty is the result of systems that have been intentionally put in place that the majority of us benefit from,” said Aisha Nyandoro, founding CEO of Springboard to Opportunities, home to the Magnolia Mother’s Trust guaranteed income program.

“So much of the conversation among economists and among policy people about infrastructure has always been about male-dominated infrastructure,” Lenore Palladino said. “We cannot rebuild our economy or build back better, as it were, with male-dominated sectors and not female-dominated sectors.”

“We have to continually ask: In whose interests are we fighting? Who will benefit from the work that I’m doing right now? Who should we put at the center of our organizing campaigns?” said Premilla Nadasen, labor and women’s historian.

The newest Ms. podcast, Looking Back, Moving Forward is out now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

‘Our Federal Constitution Doesn’t Protect Us’: How the Women’s Law Project Redefined the Fight for Abortion Rights in Pennsylvania

Carmen Rios

“We got here because we have the gender ruling class desperately holding onto their privilege—using any means necessary,” said WLP executive director Susan Frietsche on the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward.

Listen to the second episode —”Inside the Feminist Fight to Reclaim Our Reproductive Freedom (with Renee Bracey Sherman, Michele Goodwin, Angie Jean-Marie and Amy Merrill, Susan Frietsche, and Gov. Maura Healey)”—on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

‘We Are Continuing Our Work, Despite What Politicians and Antis Say’: Plan C Isn’t Backing Down from the Fight for Abortion Pills

Carmen Rios

The co-directors of the organization, which provides information and resources about abortion pills and self-managed medication abortions, spoke out about their work—and their visions for the future of abortion—in the latest episode of the Ms. Studios podcast Looking Back, Moving Forward.

“Our ability to share information is protected speech. We have the right to share information, and that hasn’t changed.”

“Our role is being this steadfast organization and initiative that’s doing the research, day in, day out, trying to understand what’s happening in this ecosystem, publishing it online and doing our very best to share this information as widely as possible.”

Trump’s Support Erodes as Women, Workers and Even Republicans Push Back

Kathy Spillar

It seems like with each week, Trump just keeps getting more and more unpopular—even among those who are most primed to like him. Trump’s approval rating is currently the lowest it’s been this term, seeing a significant decline among Independents and even some decline among Republicans.

And the “Big Beautiful Bill” has played no small role: Polling shows that majorities of voters continue to disapprove of the Republican economic plan. Seventy percent are concerned about cuts to Medicaid (which, by the way, remains overwhelmingly popular in the polls), regardless of when those cuts go into effect—indicating that the Republican strategy of delaying the cuts’ implementation till after the midterm elections might not be working.

Regardless of how dark things feel, there are countless feminist battles in our past, both near and far, that we can draw hope and strength from.

‘We Are the Experts of Our Experiences’: Why Renee Bracey Sherman Wants You to Tell Your Abortion Story

Carmen Rios

The We Testify founder and executive director explored the white supremacist roots of modern antiabortion policies—and the subversive power of abortion storytelling—in the latest episode of the Ms. Studios podcast Looking Back, Moving Forward.

“I had an abortion when I was 19 … even though I grew up in a family that was supportive of abortion, and I knew what I wanted … it still was really emotionally hard because I felt really alone. … I felt like there wasn’t anyone who looked like me talking about it or having an abortion. … Later, I ended up seeing For Colored Girls, the Tyler Perry film, and Tessa Thompson’s character had an abortion. I then saw someone who looks like me, even though my decision was completely different than hers and the experience was completely different than hers. … I felt so seen. … A lot of my work has been about ensuring that people who have abortions see versions of themselves, and ensuring that they get to be that version for someone else—and that they get to share their whole story.”

‘Women Here Are Going to Have Access to Abortion’: How Gov. Maura Healey Made Massachusetts into a Beacon for Reproductive Freedom

Carmen Rios

In the second episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward—a Ms. podcast exploring the history of the magazine and the feminist movement—Gov. Maura Healey talked about how Massachusetts prepared for the Trump administration’s attacks on abortion, what other states can do to protect and enshrine abortion access, and how her Title IX story led her to the governor’s mansion.

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