Tag: Spring 2024

Drawing the Line: How Gerrymandering Determines Whose Votes Have Power

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A healthy, functioning democracy operates on two core principles: that each person’s vote counts equally, and that the law applies to everyone the same, regardless of wealth, race, gender or political party. Gerrymandering, the practice of drawing district boundaries to advantage a specific party or community, poses a grave threat to both of these foundational principles.

The ongoing battle against gerrymandering will determine whose votes will have value, whose voices will be heard and what public policy ideas on issues like women’s and civil rights stand a chance of becoming law.

(This article originally appears in the Spring 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

Men Need a New Narrative. The Future of U.S. Democracy Depends on It

Regressive ideas about manhood underlie the anti-democracy movement plaguing the U.S. Men whose politics are to the left of center can do their part to counteract the right’s success in playing identity politics with white male voters.

Here’s where we start.

(This article originally appears in the Spring 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

‘Clear Eyes. Full Heart. Can’t Win.’ The N.C. Woman Running a Losing Campaign Against Republican Gerrymandering

Kate Compton Barr is a behavioral scientist, entrepreneur and mother of two. She’s also running her first race for office: a seat in the North Carolina state Senate. Shockingly, though, her campaign slogan is “Clear eyes. Full heart. Can’t win.” Ms. talked to Barr about what purpose her campaign serves if not to be elected. 

“We have six years to draw so much attention to this practice that even our Republican leadership can’t be quite so blatant the next go-round.”

(This article originally appears in the Spring 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

The Upcoming SCOTUS Abortion Pill Case Could Be the Next Dobbs

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next week, on Tuesday, March 26, in a case against the abortion pill mifepristone, filed against the FDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of anti-abortion doctors and dentists. The Court will issue its ruling by summer—just months before the fall election, when voters will decide on the next U.S. president and control of Congress.

“This case is not based on any kind of medical or scientific fact around abortion. It’s purely based on politics,” said Elisa Wells of the abortion pill advocacy group Plan C. “The fact that it’s been allowed to progress so far in the court system is outrageous.”

(This article originally appears in the Spring 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

Abortion Bans = Sex Discrimination

On Jan. 29, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that a law banning Medicaid funding for abortion discriminates against women, in violation of the state’s Equal Rights Amendment. The decision overturned a 1985 case saying the ERA did not apply to abortion.

“The Pennsylvania case is so sweeping and strong in the way that it identifies interference with reproductive decision-making as a form of sex discrimination and as part of the historic pattern of oppression of women. It’s really beautiful,” said Susan J. Frietsche, co-executive director of the Women’s Law Project, which filed the case on behalf of Pennsylvania abortion providers.

(This essay is part of “The ERA Is Essential to Democracy” Women & Democracy collection. It also appears in the Spring 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

Charting the Future of Equal Pay

Today, women workers make 78 cents when compared to men, and 66 cents for Black women, 52 cents for Latinas and 55 cents for Native women. The earnings gap is even larger when the value of benefits, including health and life insurance and performance bonuses, is included in the equation.

Disclosure of pay data by gender and race to the EEOC may pave the way for transparency to the public at large—and much-needed action to close gender and racial pay gaps once and for all. It’s been 60 years. Isn’t that long enough?

(This article originally appears in the Spring 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)

Spring 2024 Sneak Peek: Let Women Die?

In the latest print issue of Ms., reporter Belle Taylor-McGhee digs into a pending Supreme Court case brought by the Justice Department against Idaho on behalf of patients who need care at hospital emergency rooms due to pregnancy complications, arguing that the state’s law banning abortion at all stages of pregnancy violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA. The Supreme Court’s decision, expected in June or July, will determine the fate of women suffering potentially fatal pregnancy complications and will have life-or-death ramifications for women in any state with extreme abortion bans in place.

Here’s some of what else you’ll find within the pages of the upcoming Spring 2024 issue of Ms. magazine: how to mobilize men in service of progressive, liberal and feminist ideals; the importance of the ongoing battle against gerrymandering; Dr. Sima Samar on the status of women in Afghanistan, and more.

Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!