Title IX

Title IX was passed in 1972 and prohibits sex (and pregnancy, gender identity or sexual orientation) discrimination in any higher education institution receiving federal funding. It guaranteed equal opportunities in sports for women and girls in higher education. It also provided resources and protections against sexual harassment and sexual assault.

Secretary of Agriculture’s Anti-Trans Crusade Won’t Save Our Food System

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has long been a sprawling agency with often-conflicting goals. It’s in charge of both promoting healthy diets through the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, school food and nutrition assistance programs and boosting commodity crops, which are dumped into our food system in the form of unhealthy, ultra-processed foods and excessive amounts of meat and dairy.

But since its founding, the USDA’s role has been to recognize the vital importance of agriculture in our country and to protect America’s food supply.

So if you’re wondering how attacking transgender youth helps our food system, you’re not alone.

Nice Girls Don’t Talk Trash: The Double Standards Still Holding Back Women in Sports

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For over a century, women athletes have battled double standards that question their toughness, competitiveness and right to take up space. From early fears that competition would ruin their femininity to modern-day outrage over trash talk and physical play, the message has remained: Be strong, but not too strong. While stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have shattered records and stereotypes, lingering biases continue to limit how women—especially women of color—are allowed to perform, both on and off the court.

The fight for full inclusion in sports isn’t over; it’s simply entered a new chapter.

In Uncertain Times, We Cannot Stay Silent

Staying motivated and positive in these uncertain times is no easy feat. We are witnessing a full-fledged patriarchal meltdown, with women’s rights under threat, jeopardized or outright stripped away.

At a recent women’s conference, an attendee told me, “I’m waiting for someone to help us and tell us what to do.” My response? Don’t wait, because nobody is coming. Change starts with us. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

Trump’s War on Education: A Week-by-Week Timeline of Cuts, Bans and Rollbacks

Since taking office Jan. 20, President Donald Trump has unleashed a flurry of orders and actions designed to reshape the federal government’s role in education. The agency has also begun laying off employees, including in its Office for Civil Rights. At the same time, the Trump administration is attempting to redefine what the federal government considers discrimination in schools and on college campuses.

We’ve compiled these actions below and will update this list as Trump’s second term unfolds.

Beyond Affirmative Action: Why Gender Bias in College Admissions Still Favors Men

The recent Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action in college admissions was heralded as a victory for “merit-based” selection. The ruling has, however, left an implicit discriminatory practice intact: Male applicants continue to be prioritized over female applicants when needed to balance out the student population. This is no coincidence. It’s the result of a deeply ingrained, albeit often unacknowledged, bias in the admissions process that dates back decades.

‘Daddy’s Home’: Republican Paternalism Towards Women Exemplifies Punishment, Not Protection

On the first day of his second term in office, Trump signed the “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism” executive order, which claims to defend and protect women by asserting that, as a matter of U.S. policy, the existence of transgender people will not be recognized. Trump followed up on Feb. 5 with his “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order. These EOs join a long history of laws in the U.S. based on professed protection for women, which actually do the opposite.

While posturing as women’s protectors, Republican lawmakers ignore or inadequately address very real, substantiated and systemic threats to women, including in the intimate space of their own homes, where as many as one in four women experience domestic violence and more than three women are killed by husbands or boyfriends every day.

Women’s intelligence is insulted—and their autonomy further threatened—when the state asserts the intent to protect them from trumped-up threats that are overstated and insignificant in comparison to a spate of other much more common material, even mortal, threats to their lives and well-being.

Rolling Up Our Sleeves, Part 3: Fighting the Trump Administration with State Constitutions

A fierce feminist resistance is ready to defend women’s rights at the federal level—and creatively expand equality protections in the states. This is the third in a four-part series on the steps activists are taking to fight for our rights amid Trump’s attacks on democracy.

(This is the third in a four-part series on the steps activists are taking to fight for our rights amid Trump administration’s attacks on democracy.)

Keeping Score: Senators Grill Hegseth, Call Trump Pick Unfit to Lead DOD; Pregnancy Doubles Homicide Risk for Women; Federal Judge Strikes Down Biden Title IX Rules

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: Getting pregnant doubles the risk of dying by homicide for women under 25; Biden has appointed a record 40 Black women to federal judgeships; Louisiana’s abortion ban has a chilling effect on maternal healthcare and miscarriage treatment; N.C. Republicans try to overturn the fair election of a Democratic justice; the psychological toll on children in Gaza is severe; Biden’s Title IX protections struck down; Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against actor and director Justin Baldoni for repeated sexual harassment and retaliation; Trump’s Cabinet will be the wealthiest in American history; and more.

A Second Trump Term Could Worsen Inequalities for Women Student-Athletes

Since 1972, when Title IX was signed into law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex by any educational program receiving federal financial assistance, colleges and universities have faced questions about what constitutes “discrimination” under the statute, specifically in the universe of college athletics.

Now, 52 years after the law was passed, the Department of Education is under threat by the incoming presidential administration at a crucial time for Title IX enforcement, as new NCAA policies could spell a threat to gender equality in the college sports space even as female student-athletes continue to gain visibility and marketability.