Loopholes in Licensing Agreements Discriminate Against Female College Athletes

Beginning in 2020, many state legislatures began to pass laws that declared that college athletes had the right to sell or license their names, images and likenesses (NILs), and that their eligibility for athletics could not be taken away due to their exercise of those rights.

The monetization of athlete NILs through legitimately independent third parties is not problematic—but once there is university cooperation and involvement, Title IX requires equal treatment of women. There is ample evidence of close and growing university involvement with the collectives, and various estimates put the share of NIL money going to male athletes ranges to be between 80 and 95 percent.

Female Athletes Sue University of Oregon for ‘Hurtful, Outrageous Sex Discrimination’

Thirty-two current and former female student athletes at the University of Oregon filed a Title IX class-action lawsuit, alleging sex discrimination in athletic participation opportunities, financial aid, benefits and publicity.

“Title IX has been the law for more than 50 years. Oregon needs to comply with it, now,” said Arthur Bryant of the law firm Bailey & Glasser, which represents the plaintiffs. “The history of Title IX has shown: If women want equality, they need to fight for it. So that’s what the women at Oregon are doing.”

I Am the Woman the ‘Gender Critical’ Movement Claims to Protect. I Refuse to Be Their Pawn.

When almost 80 percent of rapes are committed by a perpetrator the victim knows, panicking about strangers lurking in loos is a dangerous diversion. Banning trans women from women’s spaces due to misguided safety concerns is not only nonsensical, it is cruel. I am incensed that the spaces I love are being weaponized to advance bigotry and exclusion.

Protecting women means protecting all of us and our right to freely express who we are.

Keeping Score: Georgia Upholds Six-Week Abortion Ban; Republicans Aim to Eliminate Women’s Bureau at Labor Department; Elections Reveal National Support for Reproductive Freedom

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’ plan to eliminate the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor; Southern states push discriminatory election policies; Scholastic book fairs affected by state bans on LGBTQ+ books and books about race; actor Suzanne Somers dies after career shaped by advocating for equal pay in television; Georgia supreme court upholds six-week abortion ban; 82 percent of mothers handle more childcare responsibilities than their partner; harassment and violence mounts against journalists in Gaza and American Jews and Muslims; National Domestic Violence Hotline reports surge in “reproductive coercion”-related calls; and more.

Keeping Score: Activist Narges Mohammadi and Economist Claudia Goldin Awarded Nobel Prizes; U.S. Scores a C for Protection of LGBTQ+ Rights

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: Federal funding for childcare expired on Oct. 1; Iranian activist and feminist economist are honored with Nobel Prizes; gunman fires two rounds into Planned Parenthood clinic in Montana; California to protect abortion providers from out-of-state lawsuits; Republicans in Congress attempt to repeal FACE Act protecting abortion clinics; cost of raising a child in the U.S. skyrockets; Latina women hit hardest by state-level abortion bans; and more.

Keeping Score: Alabama Map Violates Voting Rights Act; Coco Gauff Thanks Billie Jean King After Victory in U.S. Open

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: Supreme Court rejects second Alabama congressional map proposal; Coco Gauff wins U.S. Open; Vassar professors sue the college for undervaluing women faculty; legislators introduce bill to extend childcare funding; Tennessee’s first trans elected official; and more.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Women’s World Cup Becomes Battleground for Gender Equality; Ranked-Choice Voting Comes to Boulder, Colo.

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: Anti-abortion Republican women lawmakers hope supporting legislation to expand access to birth control will provide them with political cover from abortion bans; feminism and the FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia; the modern fight for the ERA; “A womanless history no more”; and more.

Lessons to a Young Girl From Megan Rapinoe

Megan Rapinoe hung up her soccer cleats after the final U.S. game of the 2023 World Cup. Rapinoe has proven herself as one of her generation’s most talented female players. Off the field, Rapinoe has been a leader on crucial social issues like LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, gender equality and pay equity.

To many of her fans, her profile as a fierce agent for change is the defining component of her legacy. Count me among them.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Senate Could See Third Black Woman Senator in 234 Years; Key Races in Boulder and St. Paul

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: the release of the 10th annual Gender Parity Index fueled discussions about U.S. women’s representation on social media; This November, Boulder will have its first ranked-choice mayoral contest; five women individually filed their candidacies for the St. Paul City Council; and more.