Behind the carefully curated images of homemade bread, gingham dresses and backyard chickens, is an economic vision that depends crucially on normalizing women’s secondary status in society.
Women Writers
Find books written by women, largely about women and other underrepresented communities.
Tuesday, Sept. 22 in NYC: A Crucial Conversation on the Future of Feminist Journalism, Hosted by Ms. and Women’s Media Group
Ms. magazine and Women’s Media Group will bring together leading journalists, writers and media executives in New York City on Tuesday, Sept. 22, for a timely conversation about the role of feminist journalism, and the power of women’s voices to shape news, culture and public policy.
“Feminist Journalism Today: Continuing the Crucial Conversation About Women’s Voices in Media” will explore where feminist journalism is thriving, which approaches are most effective, the challenges confronting the field and how women in media can steer the national discourse.
Who Should Decide Whether a Patient Needs an Abortion: A Doctor or an Opinion Columnist?
In case you missed it, a Washington Post columnist published an op-ed late last month that can only be described as a whine-weary litany of complaints about blue states’ targeting of crisis pregnancy centers (its headline, “In Massachusetts, ‘reproductive freedom’ goes only one way”)—a response to the decriminalization of abortion care later in pregnancy in the Commonwealth this summer.
It is fatuous and lazy commentary, recycling antiabortion movement talking points and a tired victim narrative about crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). It reads like straight-up CPC industry PR—something you’d find in the right-wing Washington Examiner. An embarrassment, even to Jeff Bezos’ Post.
And yet: It’s notable that extremist talking points are platformed in such a mainstream outlet.
To set the record straight about the Massachusetts law: The Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act removed statutory restrictions that had limited abortion care at 24 weeks or later to specified medical circumstances. Providers and supporters of the repeal said those restrictions were so narrow and difficult to interpret that doctors and hospital attorneys feared criminal prosecution or civil liability for authorizing care, even in cases involving grave fetal diagnoses or serious threats to a patient’s health. As a result, some Massachusetts patients facing pregnancy complications had to travel to places such as Washington, D.C., Maryland or New Mexico for care.
The Post column flippantly describes the new law as allowing women “to terminate pregnancies until birth, for any reason, so long as doing so accords with a physician’s ‘professional judgment’” (the writer’s scare quotes).
If not a trained medical professional, then who should be empowered to make this healthcare decision with a patient? An opinion columnist?
Rest in Power, Robin Morgan—Ms. Editor, Poet, Feminist and Architect of the Women’s Movement
Longtime Ms. editor and “architect of the contemporary women’s movement,” Robin Morgan died peacefully in her sleep on Sept. 5, 2026, just days after her friend and feminist partner Gloria Steinem.
Morgan called Ms. “a real family,” citing the depth and longevity of the relationships many people established through it. She would go on to found the Women’s Media Center alongside Ms. cofounder Gloria Steinem and actor and activist Jane Fonda in 2005.
“Robin Morgan was one of the architects of the contemporary women’s movement,” said Julie Burton, president and CEO of the Women’s Media Center. “Her global leadership for justice and equality, her work as a pioneering journalist who gave voice and visibility to women, and her fierce artistry as an internationally recognized poet and author of more than 20 books—these all constitute the legacy she has forged over decades of creative, cultural, and political work.
How Can Feminists Advance Racial Equity in a Post-DEI World? Join Book Talk With Ralina L. Joseph [Sept. 10 @ Ms. HQ in LA]
As attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion intensify across the U.S., how can feminists deepen their commitment to racial justice—and sustain that work without succumbing to exhaustion?
On Thursday, Sept. 10, at 6 p.m., Ms. will welcome author and scholar Ralina L. Joseph for a special evening examining the interconnectedness of race, equity and feminism. Joseph will discuss her new book, Racial Exhaustion: How to Move Through Racism in the Wake of DEI, in conversation with Sarah Banet-Weiser, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
The event is at Ms. magazine headquarters: 433 S. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, Calif. RSVP today!
September 2026 Reads for the Rest of Us
Hello, feminist reader friends! Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups. The aims of these lists are threefold:
I want to do my part in the disruption of what has been the acceptable “norm” in the book world for far too long—white, cis, heterosexual, male;
I want to amplify indie publishers and amazing works by writers who are women, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, APIA/AAPI, international, queer, trans, nonbinary, disabled, fat, immigrant, Muslim, neurodivergent, sex-positive or of other historically marginalized identities—you know, the rest of us; and
I want to challenge and encourage you all to buy, borrow and read them!
This month, it’s back to school and back to heavy book-publishing schedules. I can’t wait for you to check out the 15 other books I’m recommending this month. So get to it.
Was Mary Oliver a Feminist?
From Pinterest boards to classroom walls, Mary Oliver’s words have become popular in a way that most poets could only dream. People have even gone as far as to call her “Saint Mary.”
But in a new documentary Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, director and producer Sasha Waters presents Oliver with complexity, hoping that more people will read her poetry with the poet behind it in mind.
“I think there’s also this way in which she becomes a little flattened and one-dimensional through the way that she circulates now,” says Waters. “Understanding that she was very much a complicated person and woman until the end of her life is what I hope people take away from her.”
Too Soft, Too Tough, Never Just Right: The Impossible Standard for Women Leaders
Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
This week:
—”My mother started in politics in her early thirties. Over the course of her career, she tried to run multiple times. But for one reason or another, it was never quite her turn. … Whatever regrets, pity or unfairness she’s carried, she has simply accepted in silence, just like lots of other women I have encountered in my life.”
—Wednesday was Women’s Equality Day. Even with every constitutional right guaranteed on paper, would our electoral system actually produce a government where women hold their fair share of power? Right now, the answer is no.
—Already the first Muslim woman and first Afghan American to serve in the California state senate, Wahab is the first Afghan American to serve in Congress.
—Minnesota is among 18 states to never elect a woman as governor. But earlier this month, women swept the nominations for open seats for governor and U.S. Senate in their primaries.
—Tressie McMillan Cottom asks, “Is Ocasio-Cortez ready for the glass cliff?”
—”Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s blocking of promotions for high-ranking women in the military has contributed to the lowest percentage of such nominations for women in at least 25 years,” according to a New York Times analysis.
… and more.
Beyond André Breton: The Life and Art of Jacqueline Lamba, the Surrealist Woman That Art History Forgot
Jacqueline Lamba lived in the shadow of her French poet husband and was essentially erased from modern art history. A groundbreaking biography Jacqueline Lamba: The Forgotten Surrealist (published April 7, 2026, by Merrell Publishers) from art historian and author Salomon Grimberg, repositions Lamba as a major creative force in her own right, while uncovering a previously unknown love affair between Lamba and Frida Kahlo.
Nine Books by Black Women About Travel, Belonging and the Search for Home
Over the years, I’ve immersed myself in the stories of other Black women, not only as literary models, but as encouragement that the world might actually want to hear my story, my lessons and my truth. These books reminded me I am part of a long lineage of brave Black women who decided to leave home in search of adventure and themselves. The following memoirs, anthologies and novels explore movement across borders while grappling with history, race, identity, belonging, faith, joy and ultimately, home.