More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Every Friday, Ms. executive editor Kathy Spillar breaks down the week’s biggest stories, offering commentary. This weekly letter from the editor recaps critical developments in U.S. and global feminism—alongside the latest Ms. must-reads—right as they unfold.
A sexist storm of double standards and hypocrisy is brewing, with Office of Budget and Management (OMB) nominee Neera Tanden at the center, putting her confirmation to lead the government agency in serious jeopardy.
Rep. Marcia Fudge, 58, says it is “an honor and a privilege” to be asked to join President Biden’s Cabinet. If confirmed, Fudge will follow in the footsteps of her Delta sorority sister, Patricia Roberts Harris, the first Black woman to lead HUD under the Carter administration.
Many of the women President Biden has nominated into various federal positions in his record-breaking administration have yet to be confirmed—including the three women Biden has picked to lead core elements of the Department of Justice: Kristen Clarke, Vanita Gupta and Lisa Monaco.
If confirmed, Deb Haaland will become the nation’s most powerful Native American leader in our 243-year history. She will lead the Department of the Interior, the very department “whose centuries of broken promises and benign neglect has contributed to the slow erosion of Indigenous culture.”
When our leaders believe that there is no longer a gender representation problem because we’ve elected “more women than ever before” or “we have a woman vice president,” they fail to contemplate the nuanced failures that lack representation of Black women in the U.S. Senate and AAPI women in the core 15 executive agencies represent.
Despite an impeachment trial happening down the street, President Joe Biden is operating full steam ahead in building his administration. On Wednesday, Feb. 10, he nominated deputy secretary of labor Julie Su, who currently serves as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency.
President Biden has nominated a more diverse cabinet than any other president. But a slow or difficult confirmation hearing process does more than impact the operations of the government. It has an impact on the mentoring and support of diversity inside the government. I know because I was one of them.
Avril Haines is the first woman to lead the intelligence community, directing a total of 17 agencies and organizations, and serving as the principal advisor to the president, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters related to national security.
But before that, she was a caretaker for her sick mother, a judo practitioner, a car mechanic, a bookstore owner, and more.
I remember what Stacey Abrams told me: “There are few things as dangerous as a woman with a plan and the perseverance to execute.” By that metric, Janet Yellen is as dangerous as it gets.
“Economics isn’t just something you find in a textbook. I believe economic policy can be a potent tool to improve society. We can—and should—use it to address inequality, racism, and climate change.”