This week: Scotland hosts the UN’s COP 26 climate summit; the House passed Biden’s Build Back Better plan; VP Kamala Harris becomes first woman to hold presidential power; IOC releases new inclusion and Olympic eligibility guidelines; and more.
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi served as the 52nd speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first woman elected as U.S. House Speaker and the first woman to lead a major political party in either chamber of Congress, leading the House Democrats from 2003 to 2023.
House Passes the Historic Build Back Better Act: “A Giant Step Forward”
On Friday, the House passed President Biden’s Build Back Better (BBB) Act—the largest expansion of the U.S. social safety net since the 1960s. The bill includes elements that feminists have worked literally decades for.
The BBB bill is “monumental, it’s historic, it’s transformative, it’s bigger than anything we’ve ever done,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a press conference. “We will be telling our children and grandchildren that we were here this day.”
Keeping Score: House Passes Women’s Health Protection Act With Roe Under Fire; U.S. Soccer Offers Identical Contracts to Women and Men
This week: Providers stand up to Texas six-week abortion ban; U.S. Soccer to grant men’s and women’s teams equal contracts; Boston to elect first woman of color as mayor; 710 Indigenous people are missing in Wyoming; today’s children will experience three times as many climate disasters as their grandparents; and more.
Weeks-Long National Bus Tour Urges Paid Family and Medical Leave for All
Throughout August, social justice and women’s rights organizations—organized by Paid Leave For All, a group pushing for sustainable paid leave policy—are coming together for a national bus tour spanning 14 states across the U.S. to raise awareness about the need for paid family and medical leave for all.
Keeping Score: Olympics Ban Swim Caps Made for Black Hair; Abortion Restrictions Reach Record High in 2021; Biden Administration Boasts Narrowest Pay Gap in History
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 in this biweekly round-up.
This week: abortion restrictions skyrocket in 2021; Olympic policies disproportionately target Black women; Supreme Court rules in favor of free speech and gender expression; state legislatures endanger voting rights; and more.
“A Historic Sight 245 Years in the Making”: Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden share center stage; women hold less than one-third of seats in municipal governments nationwide; Utah County’s ranked-choice elections yield the first female county commissioner; why we need the Fair Representation Act; we break down the woman Oscar winners; and more!
Six Standout Moments from Nancy Pelosi As House Moves Forward on Impeachment
Pelosi wasted no time this week, using all of her powers as the Speaker of the House to ensure that the insurrectionists will be taken seriously and will face consequences for their anti-democracy actions.
Pelosi’s House Impeaches Trump for Historic Second Time
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon just days before his presidency ends, with some Republicans backing the effort, including the party’s highest-ranking woman in the chamber.
It’s Not Enough to Just Break Records in the 117th Congress
Despite historic numbers of women elected to the 117th Congress, the U.S. continues to fall far short of gender balance.