Trans Women

Childcare Won’t Be Fixed Until Moms and Dads Join Forces

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The Trump administration would have you believe they’ll try anything to have more babies. Their proposed list of incentives include medals for mothers who have more than six children, classes to educate women about their menstrual cycles and special seats reserved in the Fulbright program for applicants with children. Anything, that is, except the glaringly obvious solutions: affordable, accessible childcare and paid parental leave.

If we want to secure policies that will benefit all parents, then we need to come together, breaking down the silos between those advocating for men and those advocating for women. After all, we want the same things: affordable childcare, paid leave and a living wage for all families.

‘Remember the Ladies’: Attacks on Gender Equity Remain a Core Feature of Surging Authoritarianism

In the whirling, swirling hellscape of illegality and cruelty that is the current American political scene, it’s hard to keep track of all the individuals and groups demonized, deported and derided by an administration seemingly motivated by a Machiavellian desire for power that might make Machiavelli himself blush with shame. In the midst of an apocalyptic news cycle, one targeted segment of the population seems to be fading from view: women.

But let us not, as Abigail Adams wrote so many years ago, forget the ladies. “Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could.”

Keeping Score: Trump Administration Attacks Immigrant Students; Pregnant Women Left Behind in RFK Jr.’s COVID Policy Shift; House GOP Targets SNAP and Medicaid

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:
—House Republicans pass a reconciliation bill with almost $1 trillion in cuts to SNAP and Medicaid; feminists call it “unacceptable, inhumane and reckless.”
—”There is literally no oversight happening in this committee under the GOP,” laments Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on DOGE, led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
—Mahmoud Khalil’s powerful letter to his newborn son: “How is it that the same politicians who preach ‘family values’ are the ones tearing families apart?”
—Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s HHS will no longer advise pregnant women and children to receive the COVID vaccine, an unusual decision that sidesteps standard CDC process.
—Women-owned small businesses have higher job satisfaction.
—A federal judge attacks protections for LGBTQ Americans.

… and more.

Why Do MAGA Women Dress Like That?

No judgment, but the women featured in Evie Magazine, a “conservative Cosmo” for women 18-34, are more likely than not to show off their breasts. In a nod to the tradwife fashion trend, milkmaid dresses with low décolletage are featured on young, voluptuous white women. An article making the case against body positivity and fat acceptance, “The Return of Skinny,” is accompanied by a photo of a busty white woman on a beach wearing a thong bikini. A photo spread of Eva Vlaardingerbroek showcases the Dutch right-wing activist wearing a gold cross necklace—along with her breasts falling out of a low-cut gingham dress.

To people with conservative views, only some women—those who look and act like ‘real women’—get the privilege of being sexy.

War on Women Report: Trump Slashes Sexual Violence Prevention; GOP Targets Teens’ Repro Rights; Nebraska Abortion Funeral Bill Threatens Miscarriage Care

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MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report:
—Republicans in Indiana have gotten rid of a requirement for schools to teach about consent in sex education classes.
—Some good news out of Georgia: Prosecutors have dropped all charges against 24-year-old Selena Chandler-Scott after the national backlash that came when they arrested her after her miscarriage.
—On Saturday, April 5, over 1,200 demonstrations took place nationwide to protest the recent policies and actions of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
—Legislators in Nebraska are advancing a bill that would require abortion providers to bury or cremate fetal remains and embryonic tissue after an abortion, leaning into fetal personhood arguments.

… and more.

Knowing Our Neighbors: A Crucial First Step to Organizing in Times of Despair

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Whether it’s lending or borrowing a cup of sugar, or providing others bare necessities when the power goes out on your block for two weeks, it is essential that we break our prolonged isolation and build relationships across differences. 

Building face-to-face relationships across differences is the first act of resistance—and the foundation for community defense, disaster response and democratic revival in the South.

(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund.)

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.

Advocates Beat 91% of Last Year’s Anti-LGBTQ Bills. How?

While the trans community still faces unprecedented legislative attacks, with 49 bills passing into law in 2024, there are key strategies that activists are using to fight back.

On March 6, Montana State Representatives Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell stood up to speak against two of the 527 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in U.S. state legislatures this year. One bill would ban drag performances and pride marches as “hypersexualized shows,” and the other would require “the emergency removal of a child who is transitioning gender with the support of a parent” by state Child Protective Services.

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.

Protecting All Students Requires Listening to Them: Reflections on the Implementation of Ohio’s Anti-Trans ‘Bathroom Bill’

Picking up the few remaining “all gender restroom” signs that had hung outside bathrooms at the College of Wooster in Ohio for over a decade, I found myself in a moment of reflection. My own students had worked so hard to have the signs installed, just to be removed last month in compliance with Ohio’s so-called Protect All Students Act, which was signed into law late last year.  More commonly known as the “Bathroom Law,” the act requires all schools—K-12 to college, public and private—to “designate specified facilities for the exclusive use of students of either the male biological sex or the female biological sex.”  

No one is being “protected” by these recent laws and proclamations. Instead, there are many students actively being hurt in their implementation and aftermath. When I think back to the important work my students did over a decade ago, it feels blatantly disingenuous to see those efforts superseded by politicians in the name of “protecting all students.” What those lawmakers have done is put some students in far more vulnerable positions; and educational institutions have been forced to forgo the needs of their students in order to comply.