Each month, _Ms._ provides readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups. I love autumn in the Midwest. It’s cooler, the leaves are turning and change is in the air. I also love reading horror and watching scary movies at this time of year, so you know I’ve included a couple spooky stories this month—and a couple nonfiction titles I think are particularly terrifying. There’s memoir and history, stories and essays. Even the scariest are packaged in lovingly written prose that educates and entertains. And there’s a first: I don’t think I’ve ever featured the new releases of both a mother and a daughter in a single month. So there’s that. With further ado, here are the 13 titles I’ve chosen for the month. Read, reflect, learn, enjoy, resist and repeat. The post October 2026 Reads for the Rest of Us appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

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: —On Wednesday, Sept. 2, Gloria Steinem, feminist, social activist and cofounder of Ms., died in her New York City home. She was 92. —The family of Tierra Walker, who died in 2024 after she was refused a medically necessary abortion under Texas’ abortion ban, is suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and several of Walker’s doctors and nurses in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit. —House Republicans have formally censured Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) for his documented inappropriate conduct toward women staffers, including excessive unwanted attention and gifts ranging from flowers and purses to personalized handguns. —Trump’s FCC chair, Brendan Carr, spent a decade as part of a cult that trafficked and sexually exploited children and young women, former members allege. —Almost 200 women have died in the U.S. due to an ectopic pregnancy between 2020 and 2025. —“Jane Doe,” a former Cornell University student, has filed a lawsuit alleging she was coerced into taking incapacitating drugs, then gang-raped by seven Chi Phi fraternity brothers over a period of several hours at their fraternity house in October 2024. The plaintiff is suing Cornell University, several fraternity and sorority organizations and the seven Chi Phi members: Matthew Ingalls, Johnathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar. —A jury in Lima, Ohio, has indicted a 22-year-old woman for “abuse of a corpse” after she was arrested in February when she suffered a miscarriage and placed the fetal remains in the trash. —The same month the details of the Cornell case emerged, a student at Louisiana State University is seeking criminal charges against a student football player for allegedly sexually assaulting her in October 2025. A Title IX investigation at the university level has found that the student-athlete is “responsible” for “sexual assault” and “forcible rape.” However, an appeals judge reduced his punishment from suspension to probation. … and more. The post War on Women Report: ICE Lost Count of Detained Women’s Miscarriages; Sexual Assault Still Rampant on College Campuses; Post-Dobbs Ectopic Pregnancy Deaths on the Rise appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

There are 31 state supreme court elections across the country in 2026 with 64 seats at play. The justices who will fill those seats will issue rulings that could shape issues from abortion access to voting rights. The post As Federal Courts Strip Away Rights, State Supreme Court Elections Take on New Urgency appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

In 2022, Amanda Zurawski became a national figure after she nearly died from pregnancy complications in Texas. Zurawski had conceived that pregnancy through intrauterine insemination (IUI), but when her water broke at 18 weeks, doctors delayed abortion care until she developed life-threatening sepsis. The infection left severe scarring in her reproductive organs, leading her and her husband, Josh, to pursue IVF and a surrogate, who gave birth to their son, August, on Sept. 13. "August Mikel James Zurawski was born on Sep. 13, and he is happy and healthy. We are the happiest. ... For the present, we hope to stay in Texas and fight. But now we have someone else to think about." The post After Her Near-Fatal Pregnancy Crisis, Amanda Zurawski Is Finally a Mom appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Mifepristone is known as the abortion pill, but it has other uses most Americans have never heard about. For more than three decades, scientists have known this medication could do far more than end a pregnancy. Research shows mifepristone and a similar drug ulipristal acetate (sold under the brand name ella) can shrink fibroids, treat endometriosis and may treat and even prevent breast cancer. Despite this huge potential to improve women’s health and well-being, abortion opponents have obstructed research into these treatments for decades, fearing anything that could make mifepristone more available would weaken their fight against abortion. The burden of this obstruction has fallen on women, left to suffer from years of painful fibroids and endometriosis, heavy bleeding and reduced fertility, or death from aggressive forms of breast cancer, while research that could help sits on the shelf. For years, the fight to unlock mifepristone’s lifesaving potential was a story only feminist media would tell, but mainstream media is finally catching up. The post Antiabortion Politics Blocks Research on Fibroids, Endometriosis and Breast Cancer. The Media Is Finally Paying Attention. appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

"For the past week, all I can see is red—for the naked distrust and disgust in which women are regarded, and the willingness to believe, vouch for, and dig hard for any rationale to excuse wealthy, privileged men from any shred of accountability." I did not write these particular words about The Cornell 7, the fraternity brothers who are the subject of a civil lawsuit and renewed criminal investigation for allegedly raping a fellow student over the course of several hours two years ago and posting in a group chat to invite others to do the same. Among the comments allegedly in their chain: “Free p*ssy upstairs,” “you can walk in and whip it out," and "shop still open?" No, the opening paragraph of my column is pulled from a _Ms._ essay I wrote exactly eight years ago as I watched the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. In 2018 and again in 2026, the country must reckon with establishment-level failure in a sickening pattern of gender-based violence and unabashed patriarchal entitlement—in this case, the university’s tepid response, which included assigning essays to some of the men as part of their punishment, the district attorney’s decision not to prosecute, and the re-opening of the investigation now because of public outrage. My fury is swelling right now too, but it has a somewhat different flavor than that of 2018. It is the badge of a degraded democracy that the power of certain men will not be held to account. The post ‘Not One More Jane Doe’: From Kavanaugh to Cornell, Enough Is Enough appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

This fiftieth year should not be an anniversary we simply mark. It should be a reckoning with 50 years of harm and how to fix it. The post Fifty Years of Hyde Is Enough. Abortion Belongs in Pregnancy Care. appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Republican candidates in two pivotal North Carolina races are being taken to task for their public association with convicted sex offenders who served time for taking indecent liberties with children. Former North Carolina GOP chair Michael Whatley—the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate—and GOP Supreme Court candidate Sarah Stevens have been called to account in the leadup to the midterm elections for accepting support from one or more individuals either formerly or currently on the state sex offender registry. That support includes campaign work, financial contributions and even public prayers. North Carolina state Rep. Sarah Stevens (R), who resigned from the state House of Representatives in June to run for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, attended and accepted a donation from a fundraising picnic last year at the home of convicted sex offender Harvey West. Though Stevens said she "didn’t even know" West, she had appeared on his wife Kim West’s podcast to promote the picnic and was Facebook friends with Harvey West, a former police officer who served six years in prison after being convicted of five counts of indecent liberties with a child in 2000. This month it was also reported that Pastor Daimon L. King, a registered sex offender “twice sentenced to prison for convictions involving children," according to ABC, who led the opening prayer at a recent campaign stop for Whatley. King, who leads the Christian church New Beginnings Celebration, declared his church members "fully support and are behind" Whatley’s U.S. Senate candidacy. The post Who Cares if Political Candidates Associate with Sex Offenders? appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

In 1983, Whitney Houston appeared on The Merv Griffin Show to sing “Home.” The performance reveals the bright, complex selfhood Whitney sought to express even in spaces that were framed for her, not by her. Whereas hosts today speak with artists themselves, not their male chaperones, the segment begins with Merv introducing not Whitney but Clive Davis, the head of her label, Arista, whom he praises as “a giant of a man, probably the most knowledgeable man the record business has ever known.” The gesture was likely meant to secure the gentleman’s agreement, whereby Clive would break new Arista artists on the show. Their exchange was as good a point of origin as any for the mythology always ready to spring up around the female artist: She is the raw material, the spark of gold, that the great man discovers and shapes. Black women are often commandeered in this way, their rise attributed to some power beyond themselves, and to the men who recount their own crucial role to whomever will listen. The post Whitney Houston Was Always the Artist Behind Her Own Stardom appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Through three Marys across centuries, Katie Cappiello’s play uses sharp humor and heartbreak to ask who gets to decide what happens to a woman’s body. _The Body of Mary_ runs Sept. 8-Oct. 8 at The Gym at Judson in Greenwich Village, New York City. The post What If the Virgin Mary Had Said No? Hilarious, Heartbreaking Off-Broadway Play ‘The Body of Mary’ Reimagines an Old Story appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

As the Trump administration cuts foreign aid and pulls back from international commitments, what happens to the people and countries that have counted on the United States? And what do Americans stand to lose? A packed room for a panel on the first day of the Texas Tribune Festival with a daunting question: “Who Fills the Void?” suggested many people are trying to make sense of the same thing. The all-women panel consisted of Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau, a former diplomat and managing director at the George W. Bush Institute; Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, a fellow at the institute who has worked on democracy and human rights; and Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the refugee organization Global Refuge; moderated by Carine Hajjar of _The Washington Post_. The three panelists had different answers to who fills the void: Competitors can gain influence when the U.S. gives up its place at the table. Allies may retreat, too. But in humanitarian work, no one may step in at all, meaning the people who need help are left waiting. Bibbins Sedaca made the case for U.S. engagement abroad, in terms of both principle and self-interest: American “interests and values are integrated.” Democratically governed countries tend to be more stable and prosperous partners. Preventing disease and persecution abroad matters to the people living through those crises; it also helps make Americans safer. Bibbins Sedaca acknowledged the economic pain many Americans feel and the need to scrutinize how aid is spent. But foreign assistance has typically accounted for just 1 percent of federal spending, and less than that in recent years. She rejected the idea that meeting needs at home requires the U.S. to disengage from the rest of the world. This work also has a bipartisan history. Kennedy Trudeau pointed to PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, launched by George W. Bush. The program has saved more than 26 million lives, according to the State Department. Kennedy Trudeau described its effects beyond the number: children in school, adults able to work and communities able to plan for a future. Countries facing an AIDS crisis also learned that the United States would stand with them. Vignarajah described refugee resettlement as another commitment once supported by presidents of both parties. It was understood, she said, as both “the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.” The post ‘America Is Better With Friends’: What We Lose When the U.S. Turns Away From the World appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Feminists on the internet are erupting in rage and recognition after a former Cornell University student filed a lawsuit alleging she was pressured to take ketamine and was subsequently gang-raped for seven hours at a Cornell fraternity house. At the same time, A24's new blockbuster _Primetime_ just hit theaters. And as pedophiles and predators continue to occupy the highest echelons of the U.S. government and walk free at universities across the country, _Primetime_ captures why public exposure can feel like the only recourse left when institutions fail to act. The Cornell case now has a consequential new development: This week, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten says his office is reopening its investigation and acknowledged his office relied on campus police’s investigation rather than conducting its own. Public outrage helped bring the case back into view, but it cannot be the primary way that we seek justice. What matters now is whether Cornell and law enforcement answer the questions raised by Doe’s lawsuit … and whether the next student who comes forward has to wait for the Internet to demand those answers. The post ‘To Catch a Predator’ at Cornell appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

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: —A woman may finally become the new U.S. secretary general. —Secretary General António Guterres’ powerful and motivating remarks: "At the current pace, it will take us 171 years to reach gender equality. I don’t think any one of us wants to wait that long." —the remarkable rise of Black women candidates in Georgia —No group of donors has had quite the impact on electing more women than EMILYs List, whose “early money is like yeast” philosophy has contributed to women being poised to become the majority of Democratic lawmakers in state legislatures this year. ... and more. The post A Historic U.N. Choice, a Surge of Black Women Candidates and the Fight for Representation appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

President Donald Trump is trying to create a role for the president in running and overseeing elections. That’s not how the Constitution works. The effort to interfere with the November midterms isn’t going to consist of a single, dramatic event on Election Day. It is what we are already seeing: a combination of efforts by Trump and his supporters to make it more difficult to vote, to create confusion about who is eligible to vote, to pressure state and local officials, and to manufacture uncertainty. As Jan. 6 proved, distrust among the American people makes it easier for an administration to contest election results they don’t like. And the Trump administration is doing all of this with an eye toward shifting as much control over elections as possible from the states to the federal government. We can already see where pressure is being applied to voters and election officials, and we can identify the kinds of problems that are likely to arise. You don’t need to be a constitutional law scholar to make a difference. It just takes a desire to be useful, to engage in democracy and become a participant, not a bystander. Know your state’s rules and deadlines for registering. Research whether you can vote early or by mail. Help the people around you, who may be less informed, do the same. Volunteer as a poll worker if you can. Volunteer to do election protection work if you are a lawyer, law student, retired lawyer or simply someone willing to be trained. The post We Fought Too Hard for This Vote. Here’s How We Protect It. appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Before any of it, there was a girl on a bus. Kamini Ramani grew up in Bombay, trudging through knee-deep monsoon water to board the Number 122 red double-decker while watching for men who would try to grope girls in the crowd. She was also raised on stories about goddesses—fearsome women who fought back. Ramani is clear about what came with those stories: pressure to achieve, expectations that women be humble and meek, and rules about whom they could marry or love. Every Indian daughter is handed two things at once: goddesses who fight back, and a warning never to be one of them. Her new book, *Lotus Leadership*, treats the two as separable. In the interviews I’ve done for this series and for a book of my own, the story that surfaces is often about a mother: whether she made a single refusal or still resents that she never did. Either way, the daughter is the one who finds out what it was worth—and which parts of that inheritance she wants to carry forward. (This piece is part of an ongoing series, **Redefining Power: How Indian American Women Are Rewriting the Rules of Leadership, Identity and Care**. The series explores what it means to modernize without losing our roots—through candid conversations with Indian American women reshaping culture, power and possibility.) The post In ‘Lotus Leadership,’ Kamini Ramani Explores What Immigrant Daughters Owe the Mothers Who Taught Them to Be Strong but Quiet appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

What’s your reproductive freedom story? As part of Ms.’ The Majority campaign, five staff members at Power to Decide share theirs. The nonprofit works to expand access to sexual and reproductive health information and care; its programs include Bedsider and AbortionFinder. "Until [the Supreme Court ruled married couples had a right to contraception], [my grandmother, Ruth's] adult life was pregnancy and postpartum, on repeat." The post What’s Your Reproductive Freedom Story? Five Repro Rights Staffers on the Lives Access to Reproductive Care Helped Them Build appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) issued a new stamp late last month honoring 19th-century writer Sarah Orne Jewett—putting a woman whose work centered on female independence and unconventional lives, into mailboxes and collection books across the country. The stamp, the 35th in USPS’ Literary Arts series, was unveiled in Jewett’s hometown of South Berwick, Maine. Its portrait of Jewett appears against the Maine coast, a reference to her best-known work, _The Country of the Pointed Firs_. USPS says renewed interest in Jewett’s writing has been driven partly by her strong female characters. In 2025, _Ms._ selected _Abortion Stories: American Literature Before Roe v. Wade_ , edited by Karen Weingarten, as one of the most anticipated feminist books of the year. The published collection brings together literature documenting abortion before _Roe v. Wade_ , including an excerpt from Jewett’s _The Country of the Pointed Firs_. Jewett never explicitly writes the word “abortion” in the published passage. Instead, one of the novel’s central characters, Mrs. Todd, is an herbalist who gathers plants and receives women who arrive privately at her door seeking remedies and whispered instructions. Weingarten said she included the passage because abortion exists in its subtext, reflecting a period when reproductive knowledge could be encoded in language about women’s networks of care. That history makes the timing of Jewett’s stamp particularly striking. More than four years after the Supreme Court overturned _Roe v. Wade_ , abortion remains banned outright in 13 states, with additional states enforcing early gestational limits. Battles over reproductive healthcare continue at both the state and federal levels—from access to medication abortion, to funding for family-planning services. Jewett’s face is now traveling through a postal system caught up in that debate, across a country still contesting reproductive freedom. The stamp itself makes no claim about voting or reproductive rights. But there is something notable about a federal institution commemorating a woman whose work has become part of the literary history of abortion at the same moment reproductive autonomy is again being fiercely contested. The post Amid Reproductive Rights Rollbacks, a New USPS Stamp Honors Sarah Orne Jewett, Who Imagined Lives for Women Beyond Marriage appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

"Feminism is positive, widely embraced and global. It is spreading and growing. That gives me hope." In one of her final interviews, the late Gloria Steinem discusses her new memoir and the optimism that fueled her feminism. “The written word has always been magic to me,” Gloria Steinem—celebrated writer, feminist activist and cofounder of this magazine—observes in her charming new memoir, _An Unexpected Life_. “One of my greatest pleasures has always been opening a book and finding a friend.” In this posthumous release, she gives us exactly that: a volume that is wise and witty, intimate and inspiring. It’s a chance to get to know her not as an icon, but as a friend. Gloria and I chatted about the book the month before her death. The post No Liberation Without Community: In One of Her Final Interviews, Gloria Steinem on Her New Memoir, Chosen Family and the Future of Feminism appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

The city of Kharkiv lies 19 miles from Russia’s western border. Nestled within this historic and cultural urban center is a small news outlet that symbolizes so much of what Putin intends to erase: the truthful recounting of Russian war crimes and the lived experiences of everyday Ukrainians. The journalists of Gwara Media are determined not to let that happen. This is the story of how a small award winning independent media platform supports the diverse identities of their reporters who, in the words of Gwara’s mission statement, “ask uncommon questions, and listen to voices of the unheard.” Interviews with three of Gwara’s journalists reveal how the “voices of the unheard” have affected the journalists’ own lives and why what they have to say resonates far beyond Ukraine’s own borders. Help Gwara Media: If you are interested in making a small (or large contribution) to help support the journalists of Gwara, click this link: https://buymeacoffee.com/gwaramedia The post Russia’s War on Ukraine, Recorded by the Women and Queer Journalists Living Through It appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

After generations of silence, menopause has entered mainstream conversation with remarkable speed, thanks in part to Gen X’s insistence and the emergence of older millennials navigating perimenopause. People are finding language for once-isolating experiences, and researchers and clinicians are paying closer attention. But this cultural reboot demands that we ask whose stories are treated as authoritative, whose leadership is recognized and resourced, and who can access the care and knowledge being produced. Paid memberships, subscription communities, influencer content, concierge care, exclusive events and information behind paywalls are rapidly turning menopause into a marketplace. Who gains power as the conversation grows? What may once have operated as a strategy for surviving racial terror has hardened, in many contemporary institutions and marketplaces, into an entrance requirement: Prove you are polished, palatable, professionally credentialed, “properly” gendered, sufficiently resourced and nonthreatening before your suffering can be believed or your leadership affirmed. We are therefore being asked to interrogate more than whose voices, stories and activism are championed and pushed to the forefront. We must also examine whose knowledge is treated as credible, whose testimony becomes evidence, and whose experiences are permitted to define the full breadth of menopause. If legitimacy still depends on proximity to whiteness, wealth, cisgender identity, able-bodiedness, professional status or institutional approval, then the table has not been transformed. It has simply diversified its guest list. (This essay is part of the latest **Women & Democracy** installment, published in the middle of Black History Month, in partnership with **Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause**. Menopause is not only a physical transition—it is also cultural, social and political. Recognizing its full scope is essential to advancing true health and civic equity.) The post Respectability Politics and the Making of a Menopause Justice Movement appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

On Saturday, Sept. 26, Alicia Keys will use a special performance at the Global Citizen Festival in New York City’s Central Park to amplify the People’s Bill of Rights 250, a civic initiative asking Americans to help define the rights the Constitution should protect during the country’s next 250 years. During her “Alicia Keys & Friends” performance, Keys will bring the People’s Bill of Rights' message—“WE THE PEOPLE. AGAIN.”—to tens of thousands of festivalgoers. "The People’s Bill of Rights 250 is about ... passing the mic," says Keys, "making sure every voice gets heard, and giving people the power to shape what comes next.” It asks Americans to participate in small online deliberations and ultimately vote on which ideas should move forward. Current deliberations ask Americans to consider whether healthcare, reproductive freedom, equality for women and girls, housing, education and environmental protections should be constitutional rights. You can add your own idea (if you feel like typing), or just swipe right or left on others' ideas. The post What Rights Should the Constitution Protect? Alicia Keys and Leigh Blake Are Asking You to Decide appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

On Sept. 16, the Violence Policy Center released a report finding that nearly 2,400 women were killed by men in 2024. Nearly nine out of 10 knew their killer, and firearms were used in 63.4 percent of these homicides. When an abusive partner has access to a gun, a domestic violence victim is five times more likely to be killed. A recent _Los Angeles Times_ investigation illustrates the deadly consequences when legal protections fail. Former partners or close relatives were charged in the deaths of at least 63 women killed in Los Angeles County in 2024 and 2025. At least 10 of those women had sought restraining orders, but only four received them. One was Nora Villanueva Campanor, whose abusive husband stalked her for months before abducting and fatally shooting her, despite the restraining order she had secured. For far too long, gun violence and domestic violence have been dismissed as two separate issues. They must be examined as two interwoven public health crises. Efforts to address firearm violence must center the voices of women, particularly Black women and other communities disproportionately affected by intimate partner violence. The post A Restraining Order Is Not Enough When an Abuser Has a Gun appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Many people will learn CPR using a flat-chested manikin. A 2024 study of 20 models of CPR manikins sold worldwide found that three-quarters were described as male or had no sex specified. Of the 20, only one offered a breast overlay. The manikins reflect a wider tendency in medical teaching and research to treat the male body as standard. The terms “male and female” and “men and women” in this article reflect the sources, which often fail to distinguish sex from gender or say whether gender-diverse people were included. The lack of female representation can have consequences. In a U.S. study of 19,331 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, 39 percent of women who collapsed in public received bystander CPR, compared with 45% of men. The post Decades of Male-Focused Medical Research Could Bias Healthcare AI appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Nearly 130 heads of state and government are expected to attend the United Nations General Assembly’s high-level week in New York. From Sept. 22 to 28, world leaders will gather for the General Debate of the 81st session under the theme, “Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all.” For Afghan women and girls living under the Taliban’s systematic oppression, whether the United Nations can deliver is not an abstract question. It requires the international community to recognize gender apartheid for what it is: a crime against humanity. The support for recognizing forced marriage and reproductive violence, while stopping short of naming “gender apartheid,” presents an opportunity for feminist organizations to continue advocating for the full breadth of gender-based oppression to be recognized by the United Nations. The post As World Leaders Gather at the U.N., the Push to Recognize Gender Apartheid Gains Ground appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

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: —The Trump administration proposed a rule that would eliminate quality standards for the Head Start preschool program. —Todd Blanche was confirmed as attorney seneral, after promising to remove abortion rights nationwide. —Democrats in the Senate call out Trump administration's attacks on Title IX, on its anniversary: "They will fearmonger about trans kids until the sun comes up, but the fact is this administration has all but decimated the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education, leaving egregious instances of sexual harassment and assault, and so much else, totally unaddressed." —Members of Congress mark the 54th anniversary of Title IX with a bicameral resolution. —Kindergartener Liam Tadeo and his dad, both Austin, Texas residents, were detained and held by ICE. —The six recipients of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize are all women —Voters in battleground states say it's important that lawmakers protect access to reproductive healthcare. —At least 152 ICE or CBP agents have faced disciplinary action or criminal penalties for violent crimes. —Women make up 35 percent of non-acting Emmy Awards, matching the record high. —Actor Anne Hathaway, currently pregnant with her third child at age 43, faced social media hate and rumors that she faked her pregnancy, after showing her bump on a red carpet. —Florida professor Vinita Prabhakar was fired for assigning a “political” short story in a freshman English class. The story “Bettering Myself” focuses on an alcoholic teacher at a Catholic school and is commonly taught at colleges across the country. Prabhakar is now suing to uphold her First Amendment rights. —For the first time, the class of Goldman Environmental Prize recipients was all women. —Aisha Wahab won the special election to replace former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who resigned after sexual assault allegations. Rep. Wahab is the first Afghan American elected to Congress, and will be on the ballot for a full term in November. … and more. The post Keeping Score: Texas GOP Candidate Brandon Herrera’s Vile Attack on Mothers and Children; Rest in Power Gloria, Dolly, Robin Morgan, Annie Dillard and More appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

In the Zambian districts where it operated, the five-year Saving Mothers, Giving Life initiative helped reduce the maternal mortality ratio by 41 percent. Its success relied not only on expanding healthcare, but also on building trust and ensuring that interventions responded to the needs of local communities. Charles B. Holmes, recently named dean of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, spent four years leading the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia. He credits women mentors, collaborators and successors with shaping his approach to maternal care, HIV prevention and sustainable public health systems. As the United States faces its own maternal health crisis and the Trump administration sharply curtails foreign aid, the lessons from Zambia and Malawi are increasingly urgent: Effective public health requires local leadership, long-term investment and the voices of those most affected at the table. The post Public Health Begins With Listening: Lessons From Zambia and Malawi on Reducing Maternal Mortality appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

If you follow the mainstream press and social media, you would assume that Sydney Sweeney is an amazingly powerful 29-year-old woman. With her new hypersexualized ad for Novig, she stands accused of single-handedly debasing women, especially female athletes, and has, according to _The New York Times_ , reversed decades of progress. But if Sydney Sweeney refused to do the ad, thousands of other women would have happily taken her place. It’s much easier to blame the individual woman—as we see in the media frenzy against Sydney Sweeney—than the real culprits: the violently misogynistic porn industry. The post Why Blaming Sydney Sweeney Misses the Point appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

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: —The Kettering Foundation honors Black Voters Matter cofounder LaTosha Brown, and her brilliant idea: "a Department of Democracy: a durable, people-powered, enforcement-capable institution designed to protect voting and civic rights, monitor the conduct of all three branches of government, hold states accountable, and serve as a permanent firewall against the erosion of democratic participation. It would be built to hold regardless of who’s in power." —A record number of women have earned nominations for state legislative elections this year. —Data suggests a close Texas governor’s race this year. —U.S. House incumbent Sarah McBride has been an influential voice in Congress in her first term in office. ... and more. The post LaTosha Brown’s Case for America’s First Department of Democracy appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Organizers of No Kings have announced a fourth nationwide mobilization for Saturday, Oct. 17, focused on early voting and helping voters make a plan for the midterm elections. “Power belongs to the people, but only if we use it,” organizers wrote in announcing the event. The post Next No Kings: Oct. 17 Day of Action Focused on Early Voting appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

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. The post What Feminists Can Learn From ‘Yesteryear’: Tradwives Are the New Girlbosses appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

This is a story about choices that are not really choices. It is a story about impossible circumstances propelling us down pathways we believe unimaginable. You always believe it could never happen to you, until it does. “Our last encounter was him trying to choke me, and me stabbing him.” Naomi sighs and leans against the passenger seat of my car, ending the story of the night she killed her abuser. A grand jury indicted her for second-degree murder. A year later, she pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter. Initially facing five to 25 years in prison, her sentence was reduced under New York state’s Domestic Violence Survivor Justice Act to three years’ incarceration, with five years of post-release supervision. Even the District Attorney’s office acknowledged Naomi was a victim of domestic violence, which “was a significant contributing factor” to her behavior. When the options available to her were kill or be killed, why was she even indicted? We live in a world that punishes survivors and creates more victims with generous latitude inexplicably afforded to men who have proven themselves dangerous to society. It seems that the only perfect victim is a dead one, a woman who can’t talk back. The post The Perfect Victim Is a Dead Woman appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

At Congress’ first-ever hearing devoted to menopause, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf urged lawmakers to invest in modern research, improve medical education and ensure access to quality care and evidence-based treatment. The post Menopause Is a Public Policy Story. Congress Must Treat It Like One. appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Mainstream legacy media in the U.K. has found a new target: young disabled women. Last week, _Telegraph_ editor Poppy Coburn published “How having a disability became cool,” arguing so-called “sickfluencers” are “turning chronic illness into a lifestyle trend.” Just a month earlier, _Times of London_ columnist Kathleen Stock suggested the disproportionate number of Gen Z women diagnosed with what she called “vague syndromes” may be experiencing “social contagion.” Both pieces cast suspicion on young disabled women and the ways they discuss chronic illness and use mobility aids, reflecting a growing strain of far-right rhetoric that treats disabled women’s accounts of their own bodies with suspicion. The post Activists Have Fought for Disability Justice. So-Called ‘Sickfluencers’ Still Face Medical Sexism. appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Almost exactly five years ago, the Taliban swept back into power in Afghanistan and created the most violent and hostile environment for women and girls on earth. Through more than 160 official decrees, the Taliban have erased women from every aspect of public life. They are not allowed to attend school past sixth grade, are banned from nearly all professions, are unable to leave their homes without a male chaperone and are even forbidden from singing or speaking to each other in public. This legally mandated, institutionalized system of oppression meets the criteria for apartheid on the basis of gender. Despite repeated calls from Afghan women and girls for solidarity and condemnation, the Taliban continue to push the limits of gender-based oppression, and seemingly nothing is stopping them. Now, as world leaders prepare to gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly’s High-Level Week, taking place Sept. 18 to 28, they must not allow the rights and freedom of Afghan women and girls to become an afterthought. The post The World Cannot Forget About Women and Girls in Afghanistan appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Despite the fact that AI seems to be everywhere these days, a surprising recent poll from NBC News found that AI is even less popular among the US public than ICE. So it is no wonder the same industry that is developing AI for corporate gain and warfare is moving into the seemingly benevolent fields of reproductive health, elder care, emotional support, education, therapy chatbots and intimacy. AI may promise solutions, but artificial feminist intelligence can't replace the relationships, care and systemic change in demand. The post Artificial Feminist Intelligence Is Not Feminism appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

For decades, Democratic and Republican administrations alike presided over a medical research system that routinely excluded women. The result? Modern medicine was built on incomplete science—and women are still paying the price. It wasn’t until the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 that federally funded clinical trials were required to include women. Yet changing who participates in research does not rewrite decades of medical knowledge overnight. By then, physicians had already been trained using male-centered evidence, diagnostic standards had been established, and countless drugs had already been dosed using evidence derived solely from men. In 2025, the Trump administration has proposed cutting the NIH’s budget by roughly 43 percent (equivalent to $20 billion per year). Its broader HHS budget proposal called for eliminating or consolidating several programs supporting family planning and maternal and child health. Federal agencies also came under pressure to scrutinize or reject grant proposals containing terms such as women, leading to paused or cancelled fellowships and research on conditions such as uterine fibroids and pregnancy. There are signs, however, that Congress may finally be beginning to treat women’s health across the lifespan as a serious policy issue. On Sept. 16, the Senate Special Committee on Aging will hold Congress’ first-ever hearing devoted to menopause. Led by ranking member Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), “Half the Country, Zero Hearings: Meeting the Moment to End the Menopause Care Gap in America” will examine the nation’s lack of menopause research, informed medical care and provider training—and make the case for greater federal investment. The hearing represents an overdue step forward. But women’s health cannot remain vulnerable to political cycles. Regardless of which party holds power, it must become a permanent priority within American policy and medicine. The post Half the Country, a Fraction of the Research appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

_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. The post Tuesday, Sept. 22 in NYC: A Crucial Conversation on the Future of Feminist Journalism, Hosted by Ms. and Women’s Media Group appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Congress passed the Epstein Transparency Act in November 2025, yet the Department of Justice is refusing to release all the Epstein files. For those they have released, the DOJ redacted the perpetrators’ names while revealing the victims’ names. We have watched the victims demand accountability at the Capitol and attend congressional hearings, while being ignored by attorneys general, politicians and prosecutors—over and over. No one has been charged. No one has been charged, prosecuted or convicted other than one woman, Epstein’s partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell. As we rage against the injustices of Epstein’s crimes and the ongoing cover-ups, we find dark satisfaction in the new Hulu series _Furious_ that portrays women with no other recourse fighting back against perpetrators and the protectors and systems that are failing to hold these abusers accountable. _Furious_ invites survivors of sexual abuse and allies to imagine what it would feel like to “have all the fucking power in the world,” then tap into that power to continue the work of destroying rape culture. The post ‘Furious’ Is a Cathartic Feminist Fable After Years of Epstein Stonewalling appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Gloria Steinem was a person with integrity who used her celebrity to promote feminism and women’s issues—keeping them front in the public’s mind through appearances on talk shows, speaking engagements, her memoir _My Life on the Road_ and the biographical film derived from it, _The Glorias_. One moment in particular has stayed with me: Steinem’s pronouncement in a 2016 article by Zeba Blay, titled “I Learned Feminism From Black Women.” (I was so thrilled to see such a public announcement, that I used this quote in the first brochure published about the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive, which I founded in 2016 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.) I wonder how comfortable she would be with all the hoopla that focuses attention only on her, while ignoring the countless Black, Brown, Indigenous and other white women who struggled for equal rights before her—including the Black women from whom she said she learned her feminism. Those women continued the struggle during Steinem’s lifetime, and they will continue it after her death. I did not know Gloria well, but well enough to ask my African ancestors to welcome her soul as a kindred spirit. Asè. The post Honoring Gloria Steinem’s Legacy and the Black Feminists Who Shaped It appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Conservative influencers and campus networks are urging Gen Z women to prioritize early marriage and motherhood over education and professional ambition. Conservative groups now host several events and conferences aimed at young women, including Live Action’s Young Leaders Summit, Turning Point USA’s Young Women’s Leadership Summit and the Conservative Political Action Conference’s Women Warriors Summit. In the speeches and sessions I reviewed from these gatherings, speakers offered little encouragement for career-building or financial independence. Instead, they focused on chastity, marriage, traditional gender roles and what they described as God’s design for women’s lives. Their message was clear: The most important decision facing women in their twenties is not which major to choose or which job offer to accept, but whom to marry, and how soon. Proponents of this narrative often skip over the practical risks of marrying young. Young age and economic stress are both associated with a heightened risk of intimate partner violence, while financial dependence can make an abusive relationship far more difficult to leave. I’m a Gen Z woman and college student pursuing a career, financial independence and a life shaped by my own ambitions. After spending the summer researching conservative media, I found its messages unsettling: reminiscent of a past when women faced legal and social barriers to employment, property ownership and independent access to credit, and were valued primarily for their roles as wives and mothers. Although I do not believe this narrative is widely accepted across Gen Z, I worry that without greater scrutiny, more young women may begin to internalize the idea that their ambitions matter less than those of their male peers. The post Marry Young, Skip the Career Ladder: Conservatives’ Pitch to Gen Z Women appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

“I’ve prepared a lot. I’m taking this very seriously, because it’s still very rare for women to get Netflix specials. I had to have sex with so many executives over there.” So begins comedian Mary Beth Barone’s new Netflix special, _Galaxy Brain_ , with a joke about just how exceptional a woman apparently has to be to reach one of comedy’s biggest platforms. A recent _New York Times_ article, “Feminist Stand-Up Was Once Ascendant. Can Mary Beth Barone Revive It?” paints a picture of a stand-up scene that’s left women behind: one dominated by deliberately confrontational, anti-“politically correct” comedy and Netflix Top 10 lists littered with right-wing darlings like Tony Hinchcliffe and Andrew Schulz. Barone’s joke points to a real disparity in who receives the industry’s most visible opportunities. Women account for only a quarter of Netflix’s stand-up specials in 2026. And among 2025’s 10 highest-grossing comedy tours, Nikki Glaser’s _Alive and Unwell_ was the only one headlined by a woman. But asking whether Barone can “revive” feminist stand-up mistakes limited mainstream visibility for an absence of feminist comedy. Women—particularly Black women, queer women and other performers pushed outside the industry’s center—have helped shape stand-up from its beginnings. The post ‘Galaxy Brain,’ Feminist Stand-Up and Looking Beyond the Netflix Algorithm appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Nasrin Sotoudeh is an Iranian human rights lawyer and activist who, along with her husband Reza Khandan, has been repeatedly arrested for her women's rights activism and spent six years in prison. In the wake of Gloria Steinem's passing on Sept. 2, Soutoudeh shared these words with _Ms._ "Gloria Steinem’s extraordinary life and activism has touched, elevated and inspired women all over the world. "I can attest to her deep influence on me and countless other women’s rights activists here in Iran, including my husband, Reza Khandan. "As women, we know that whether we are in America or India, Europe or Africa, Iran or Afghanistan, our fate and fortune is tied together. The rights that we achieve or lose in one corner of the world have a direct bearing on another. In a very real sense, when it comes to persecution or emancipation, our minds, bodies and spirits are one." The post Iranian Women’s Rights Activist Nasrin Sotoudeh Remembers Gloria Steinem: ‘Our Fate and Fortune Is Tied Together’ appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

(This article originally appeared in the December 2001/January 2002 issue of _Ms._ magazine.) A free, independent and critical press is never more crucial than in wartime, when millions of lives and the course of history can turn on small bits of information. But since the Sept. 11 attacks, corporate media outlets have been busy doing what News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch called their “patriotic duty”: waving the flag, toeing the government’s line, and ceding their major editorial judgment calls to Condoleezza Rice and other administration bigwigs. These insiders have pressured news executives to suppress information ranging from Al Qaeda statements and security details to public health data available under the Freedom of Information Act. The post After Sept. 11, the U.S. Press Corps Chose Patriotism Over Scrutiny appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Attorney General Todd Blanche came to Dallas this week to deliver a “law and order” message at Trump’s midterm rally, where he praised the president and promised accountability for people who break the law. His central line was: “To evil men and women in this country, know this: President Trump will hold you accountable.” A few miles away, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse and their family were asking why that commitment to accountability had not extended to them. They gathered inside the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room, surrounded by 3,437 bound volumes containing nearly 3.5 million pages released by the Justice Department. The books weigh about 17,000 pounds and stretch across hundreds of feet of shelving, turning a sprawling digital archive into something visitors can see, walk through and begin to comprehend. The scale of the files is staggering, but survivors said releasing millions of pages is not the same as delivering justice. They are still waiting for the Justice Department to release the remaining records, protect their identities and investigate viable leads involving alleged co-conspirators and enablers. “Justice that stops when it reaches power is not justice,” survivor Sharlene Rochard said. The thousands of bound volumes make that unfinished work impossible to ignore. The post ‘Survivors Have Answered Enough’: The Epstein Reading Room Takes Survivors’ Fight on the Road appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

With just two months until the midterm elections, voters across party lines are looking for candidates who are willing to take on corruption, hold powerful abusers accountable and demand the full release of the Epstein files. A new nationwide poll conducted by public opinion research firm GBAO and released Wednesday by COURIER and Reckoning Action found that 88 percent of Americans who plan to vote in the midterms, including 83 percent of Republican voters, will prioritize candidates who promise to hold powerful people accountable, including through the release of the full Epstein files. Justice for Epstein’s victims ranked higher for voters than almost every other issue, including healthcare, affordability, immigration, public safety and the Iran War. Releasing the Epstein files became a national priority in 2025, as the Trump administration became engrossed in an apparent cover-up of the records, what they contained, and who they might implicate. The most grievous transgressions include secret meetings in the Situation Room; moving Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell to a low-security prison; holding a fake Epstein files release party with far-right media personalities; and closing its investigation into Epstein without additional prosecutions after a hasty review of less than 7 percent of the DOJ’s investigative files. In lieu of executive accountability, the public turned to Congress. Pressure from voters grew so intense that the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) passed with virtually unanimous support. But the new polling suggests that voters may now turn to the ballot box to punish those they believe have failed to ensure the law is upheld. To date, only half of the 6 million records from the government’s case files on Epstein have been released, and the U.S. Department of Justice has failed to provide Congress with explanations for redactions and omissions as required by law. The full release of the Epstein files will take a Congress willing to use its power to force the DOJ to comply with the law, as Attorney General Todd Blanche has stonewalled any attempts to do so. Senate Republicans approved Blanche’s nomination to his role in August, despite pleas from survivors of Epstein’s abuse to reject him. Blanche took lead on the Epstein investigation in 2025, members of Congress currently investigating his handling of the case say his priority has been to protect the president every step of the way. (**Editor's note:** The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room—a traveling exhibit that organizes the 3.5 million pages of DOJ’s released Epstein files into 3,437 bound books—is on tour. Five cities will host the full Reading Room; the smaller Bookmobile will visit 20+ more along the way; read on for the full schedule.) The post Trump and DOJ’s Epstein Cover-Up Is Front of Mind for Voters Going into Midterms appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

On Wednesday, Sep. 9, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard oral arguments in _Louisiana v. FDA_ , a lawsuit filed by the Louisiana attorney general seeking to end telehealth abortion nationwide, even in states that protect abortion access. Since the fall of _Roe_ and a national snapback of abortion rights in a majority of U.S. states, the antiabortion movement has been laser focused on trying to restrict telehealth abortion because it's increasing in both awareness and popularity, and it allows patients to circumvent state bans. The 5th Circuit is considered one of the most conservative appeals courts in the country. But the three-judge panel randomly selected to hear Wednesday's case included two judges appointed by Democratic presidents: Judge Stephen Higginson, appointed by former President Barack Obama; and Judge Dana Douglas, by former President Joe Biden. The third judge, Judy Richman, was appointed by George W. Bush. During oral arguments, all three judges indicated skepticism about Louisiana’s arguments, starting with Louisiana’s right to bring the case. While the recent 5th Circuit hearing offers hope that efforts to restrict mifepristone through the courts will not succeed anytime soon, two greater threats remain: Trump’s antiabortion nominee to lead the FDA, Heidi Overton, and Attorney General Todd Blanche’s promise to restrict the mailing of mifepristone under the Comstock Act. (This move would spur immediate lawsuits by Democratic states and manufacturers of mifepristone.) Meanwhile, abortion rights advocates will never give up in finding new ways to put abortion pills in women’s hands. The post Fifth Circuit Judges Seem Skeptical of Louisiana’s Challenge to Telehealth Abortion appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Last month, Gov. Maura Healey signed the Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act into law, making Massachusetts the tenth state, together with Washington, D.C., that does not impose a gestational limit on access to abortion care. In so doing, Healey stressed the “heartbreaking stories” she heard “from women and families who were preparing to welcome a healthy baby into their family, only to receive devastating news later in their pregnancy. Instead of being able to rely on the doctors they knew and trusted at home, they were forced to travel hundreds of miles and pay out of their pockets while navigating unimaginable grief.” I recently had the privilege of talking with Kate Dineen who shared her heartbreaking experience of being denied abortion care in Massachusetts because of the state’s “24-week ban with very difficult to access exceptions.” Here is her story. The post ‘It’s About Who Gets to Decide’: Massachusetts Will No Longer Impose a Gestational Limit on Access to Abortion Care appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

For more than half a century, Robin Morgan helped shape feminist thought and activism in the United States and around the world. She also designed the now-iconic symbol of the women’s movement: the female symbol combined with a raised fist. In her own unforgettable words, the pioneering feminist writer, poet and longtime _Ms._ editor reflects on power, progress, women’s leadership and the fight ahead. The post Robin Morgan’s ‘Fighting Words’ for the Work Ahead appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

In case you missed it, a _Washington Post_ columnist published a so-called op-ed late last month that can only be described as an antiabortion, 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 still a win for the extremists to have their talking points platformed in such a mainstream outlet. The post Who Should Decide Whether a Patient Needs an Abortion: A Doctor or an Opinion Columnist? appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Last week, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid was asked about the continued ban on Afghan girls’ education. He said, plainly, “Perhaps now is not the time to discuss this issue.” Five years in, that is their answer. It has always been their answer. The post Five Years Without a Classroom: Afghan Girls Cannot Wait Any Longer appeared first on Ms. Magazine.