(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund highlighting the work of Groundswell partners advancing inclusive democracy.)

The post In Norfolk, Va., Parents and Community Members Took Children’s Education and Safety Into Their Own Hands appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

On the first night of Hanukkah, a gathering on Bondi Beach in Sydney, turned into horror when a father and son opened fire during a “Hanukkah by the Sea” celebration, killing 15 people and wounding 40 in what Australian authorities called an antisemitic terrorist attack. 

The day before in Providence, R.I., a shooter opened fire at Brown University during finals, killing two students and wounding nine.

These shootings—one at a beloved public beach, the other on an Ivy League campus—expose not only shared grief but radically different understandings of responsibility.

The post Two Mass Shootings, Two Countries—and Two Very Different Responses appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

As an emergency medicine physician with over 20 years of experience, I’ve operated from positions of information and authority in mass casualties before. This weekend, I had neither. I was simply a mother trying to keep my daughter safe from 150 miles away, armed only with a phone and whatever guidance I could piece together. I want to share what I learned, because on Saturday, thousands of students were in lockdown texting their anxious parents, and I realized how unprepared we are for this side of the experience.

The post My Daughter Was in the Mass Shooting at Brown, and I Wasn’t Trained for What to Do appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

In the search for explanations, the public and policy discourse is most often swept up in heated debates about far-left or far-right ideologies.

But the data shows that the biggest and clearest predictor of mass shootings, across ideologies, sits somewhere else: in rising gendered grievances, patriarchal backlash, and the perpetrators’ histories of gender-based violence and misogyny.

The post Making the Invisible Visible: How Misogyny Is Driving Rising Political Violence appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Kirk built his career on racism and misogyny, encouraging young Americans to the side of a fully radicalized and extremist Republican party that has abandoned any pretense of caring for Americans and instead has become a propaganda machine pathetically flaying to prove that they are all men.

I’m sorry for Charlie Kirk and all the other men like him that have been raised in this America and with these ideals of masculinity. I’m sorry that he decided to adopt this hateful ideology and to profit from it. And as the mother to a boy and a girl, my heart breaks for the America these children are growing up in. Here’s hoping we can save ourselves.

The post Dying to Be Men: American Masculinity as Death Cult appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Men, let’s answer the call. Let’s urge Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison to use their platforms to spark a movement of men to lead the way. Enough is enough. The time is now—before the guns ring out again.

The post The Sound of Silence After Minneapolis: America’s Masculinity Blind Spot appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

This week: HHS promotes conversion therapy-like policies and opposes gender-affirming care; new executive order could lead to discrimination from credit lenders; Trump guts the Women's Health Initiative; Wyoming abortion clinic celebrates a TRAP law injunction; Olivia Rodrigo received Planned Parenthood award; and more.

The post Keeping Score: Rep. Jasmine Crockett Questions Trump’s ‘Fitness to Serve’; Women Carry Two-Thirds of Student Debt; Congress Votes to Criminalize Revenge Porn appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Last month, the U.N.’s annual two-week Conference on the Status of Women wrapped up in New York, having barely addressed growing threats of gender-based violence and without acknowledging the elephant in the room: how Trump administration policy swerves threaten to undo decades of progress for women, including women in the U.S.

The post Thousands of U.S. Women Are Killed Each Year. Where’s the Outrage? appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

—A gun in a domestic violence situation makes a woman five times more likely to be killed.
—Homicide is the leading cause of death for pregnant and postpartum women, with 68 percent of those homicides involving firearms.
—Black women face higher rates of intimate partner violence and are more likely than white women to be fatally shot.
—Forty-one percent of perpetrators in mass shootings between 2016 and 2020 had a history of domestic violence.

So why would any administration push policies that arm abusers? As always, follow the money. 

The post Rearming Domestic Abusers: Trump’s New Gun Policy Threatens Women Across the Country appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

If the Justice Department can use armed forces to intimidate former employees fighting against corruption and domestic violence, is there truly still free speech in the U.S.?

The post DOJ Attempts to Silence Fired Attorney Liz Oyer for Refusing to Reinstate Gun Rights of Convicted Abuser Mel Gibson appeared first on Ms. Magazine.