More Than A Magazine, A Movement
In June, Mexico marked a historic moment electing its first female president. Many women from the United States and other Latin American countries travel to Mexico to seek care. Therefore, advancing reproductive choice for women and girls should be a top policy priority for President Claudia Sheinbaum’s term in order to expand access to myriad opportunities for women across the Americas.
Two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Texas leads the nation in funding for crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). The system is meant to help growing families, but it’s riddled with waste and lacks oversight, a ProPublica and CBS News investigation found.
What’s worse: Lawmakers around the country are considering programs modeled on Texas’ CPC system, called Alternatives to Abortion.
Exactly 12 years ago, Mexico enacted the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists law, a legislative promise to protect activists and reporters from violence and repression. Today, this promise remains unfulfilled.
Mexico remains one of the most dangerous places for human rights defenders, particularly for women climate leaders—who face targeted violence, threats, and attacks, with little to no effective protection from the state. Just last month, Mexico elected its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, an environmental scientist who has led on climate change throughout her career. While this election may mark a shift towards better protection and support for women climate leaders, there is a tremendous amount of work to be done to protect them—not only for their sake but for the future of our planet.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Alyia Gaskins secured the Democratic nomination for mayor of Alexandria and is on track to become the first Black woman mayor in the city; over 100 women are on the November ballot, aiming for seats in the Texas House next year; women across the nation report salary as a key consideration when deciding to run or remain in office; and more.
An oral history project five years in the making, Beginning Again: Stories of Movement and Migration in Appalachia brings together narratives of refugees, migrants and generations-long residents that explore complex journeys of resettlement.
Meet Cindy Sierra Morales: When she was 6 years old, Sierra Morales’ family migrated from Durango, Mexico, to Los Angeles, fleeing gang violence. After a short stay with family friends, Cindy’s family drove to Marion, N.C., where her aunt, uncle, cousins and older siblings already lived. Her parents held a variety of factory jobs, and Cindy started second grade just a few weeks after arriving. After living in the United States for 15 years, Cindy and her siblings were able to secure legal documentation through DACA.
On June 2, over 60 percent of registered Mexican voters went to the polls for a monumental election, with over 20,000 public offices up for grabs at the federal and local levels. This election was historic, as a woman was elected to hold the highest office in Mexico for the first time. This transition did not occur naturally; it resulted from consistent, permanent debate at all levels by activists, institutions, academics and women in politics who worked together across party lines to close the political gender gap. Although there is still a long way to go to achieve substantive gender parity in public life, Mexico’s progress can and should be a valuable lesson to the U.S.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Discover why the Fearless Fund has been halted by the courts and its implications for DEI programs. Explore the ongoing challenges in achieving global gender balance despite historic gains. Join us in celebrating the victories of Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first woman president, and Halla Tomasdottir, Iceland’s next president. Additionally, dive into our Summer Reading series, where we spotlight the incredible books our team at RepresentWomen is delving into this summer.
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 this biweekly roundup.
This week: Trump convicted of 34 felony charges; President Biden officially recognizes Pride Month; a new law criminalizes medication abortion in Louisiana; Meghan Markle reflects on Ms.; the first Professional Women’s Hockey League championship; Mexico elected their first woman president; and more.
The start of this week marked a feminist milestone for our southern neighbors: the election of the first-ever woman president in Mexico—a culmination of decades of political interventions like gender quotas and parity mandates aimed expressly at elevating more women to higher office.
Just days before, in Texas—home to 10 percent of U.S. women of reproductive age—the state Supreme Court issued a huge loss to women, in the form of a callous ruling that forces pregnancy on women until (and even past) the brink of death and mandates them to continue pregnancies even when their fetus has no chance of survival after birth. To wish such suffering on pregnant Texans and their children goes beyond heartless indifference. It is violent and inhumane.
Felicidades a mis hermanas en México. And buena suerte—good luck—to my sisters in Texas. You are not alone.
President Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday that will temporarily close the United States border to all border crossers—including asylum seekers—if the number of border crossings reaches a certain threshold.
Many people are likely to suffer as a result of Biden’s action—especially women from Mexico and Central America desperate for safety because of gender-based violence in their home countries.