Trans Women

Why Anti-Trans Hate Makes a Toxic Environment for Women Athletes

PUBLISHED 8/19/2025 by

Laws, rules or regulations ban trans athletes from competing in sports consistent with their gender identity in 29 states, with 21 beginning the ban in kindergarten. The majority-conservative Supreme Court announced last month it’ll be taking on the question of the constitutionality of the bans. Meanwhile, the federal government is pressuring states without bans to change their policies in compliance with a Trump executive order that attempts to institute a nationwide ban.

These bans have been successful in part because of a toxic and ruthless ecosystem of far-right influencers, like Riley Gaines, who have formed entire careers around attacking trans athletes by prioritizing hate and misinformation.

“It can be really difficult when [trans athletes] feel like they’re doing everything right … and they still don’t belong.”

The Purse Is More Than a Fashion Statement. It’s a Historical and Social Signifier.

PUBLISHED 8/4/2025 by

Americans have long used items of apparel such as hats and shoes to express aspirations, amplify differences and alleviate anxieties, but only the purse—with its cavernous, pocketed interior—has also provided marginalized people with much-needed space, privacy and power.

The Things She Carried: A Cultural History of the Purse—out Aug. 4—examines how a variety of bags and purses became meaningful for Americans often ignored in studies of fashion and whose possessions are largely left out of museum artifact collections. It asks how one seemingly ordinary object became so ubiquitous, unpacking how and why it became almost exclusively linked to women.

War on Women Report: State Department Mass-Burns Contraceptives; GOP Budget Decimates Medicaid; Texas Crisis Pregnancy Center Funds Paid for CEO’s Smoke Shop

PUBLISHED 7/30/2025 by and

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:
—After a highly publicized trial, a jury acquitted music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs of the most serious charges—sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
—Texas’ funding pipeline for antiabortion crisis pregnancy centers allowed CPCs to spend millions of taxpayer dollars with little oversight into how the money was used.
—A Texas man is suing a doctor in California who he claims sent abortion pills in the mail to his girlfriend.

… and more.

Keeping Score: States Ramp Up Antiabortion Efforts; Black Women Forced Out of the Workforce; Only a Quarter of Americans Say Trump Has Helped Them

PUBLISHED 7/30/2025 by

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:
—States continue to develop strategies to pass antiabortion laws.
—Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is still attempting to sue New York doctor Margaret Carpenter. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul responded, “Attorney General Paxton should focus more on his own private life instead of dictating the personal decisions of women across America.”
—Almost 300,000 Black women left the labor force in the past three months.
—Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas), co-chair of the Voting Rights Caucus, is leading a bill to prevent unnecessary redistricting in between censuses.
—Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) have introduced a bill preventing the unnecessary destruction of foreign aid food, medicine and medical devices.
—The Supreme Court enabled Trump to dismantle the Department of Education.
—Trans women were banned from U.S. women’s Olympic sports.
—Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) is sharing her own history with domestic abuse as part of her advocacy to support survivors: “For me, it’s just about trying to keep other people from having to go through what we did and for mothers and fathers—there are men that are victims too—to know that there are resources.”
—Chef José Andrés details the policy changes needed to save millions in Gaza from starvation: “A starving human being needs food today, not tomorrow.”
—Under a quarter of Americans can name a female historical figure, and only 6 percent of monuments honor women.
—South African runner Caster Semenya won her case at the European Court of Human Rights.
—After bipartisan criticism in Congress, the Trump administration will release $1.3 billion for after-school programs that has been withheld from states.
—A Kentucky appeals court agreed that Jewish woman Jessica Kalb may continue her suit against the state’s strict abortion ban, which violates her religious beliefs.

… and more.

Keeping Score: Diddy’s Incomplete Conviction ‘Failed to Protect Survivors’; Inhumane Conditions in Alligator Alcatraz; What’s in the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’?

PUBLISHED 7/14/2025 by

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:
—Trump’s reconciliation bill will prevent millions from accessing healthcare and food assistance.
—IWMF announced this year’s Courage in Journalism Awards.
—Many prison systems lack accommodations for pregnant inmates.
—Sean “Diddy” Combs found not guilty of sex trafficking.
—The Supreme Court’s decision on LGBTQ books in public schools lays the foundation for new assault on books of all kinds in schools.
—Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) called out the hypocrisy of “pro-choice” members of Congress in a House Rules committee meeting: “They say they’re pro-life because they want the baby to be born, go to school and get shot in the school.”
—A group of actors including Jane Fonda and Rosario Dawson wrote a letter to Amazon, after allegations that the company has frequently refused to accommodate pregnant workers. 
—Mahmoud Khalil is suing the Trump administration for $20 million.
—July 10 was Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, marking when Black women’s earnings catch up to what white men earned in 2024.

… and more.

Childcare Won’t Be Fixed Until Moms and Dads Join Forces

PUBLISHED 6/5/2025 by and | UPDATED 6/11/2025 at 3:19 P.M. PT

The Trump administration would have you believe they’ll try anything to have more babies. Their proposed list of incentives include medals for mothers who have more than six children, classes to educate women about their menstrual cycles and special seats reserved in the Fulbright program for applicants with children. Anything, that is, except the glaringly obvious solutions: affordable, accessible childcare and paid parental leave.

If we want to secure policies that will benefit all parents, then we need to come together, breaking down the silos between those advocating for men and those advocating for women. After all, we want the same things: affordable childcare, paid leave and a living wage for all families.

‘Remember the Ladies’: Attacks on Gender Equity Remain a Core Feature of Surging Authoritarianism

PUBLISHED 6/3/2025 by

In the whirling, swirling hellscape of illegality and cruelty that is the current American political scene, it’s hard to keep track of all the individuals and groups demonized, deported and derided by an administration seemingly motivated by a Machiavellian desire for power that might make Machiavelli himself blush with shame. In the midst of an apocalyptic news cycle, one targeted segment of the population seems to be fading from view: women.

But let us not, as Abigail Adams wrote so many years ago, forget the ladies. “Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could.”

Keeping Score: Trump Administration Attacks Immigrant Students; Pregnant Women Left Behind in RFK Jr.’s COVID Policy Shift; House GOP Targets SNAP and Medicaid

PUBLISHED 5/27/2025 by

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 pass a reconciliation bill with almost $1 trillion in cuts to SNAP and Medicaid; feminists call it “unacceptable, inhumane and reckless.”
—”There is literally no oversight happening in this committee under the GOP,” laments Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on DOGE, led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
—Mahmoud Khalil’s powerful letter to his newborn son: “How is it that the same politicians who preach ‘family values’ are the ones tearing families apart?”
—Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s HHS will no longer advise pregnant women and children to receive the COVID vaccine, an unusual decision that sidesteps standard CDC process.
—Women-owned small businesses have higher job satisfaction.
—A federal judge attacks protections for LGBTQ Americans.

… and more.

Why Do MAGA Women Dress Like That?

PUBLISHED 5/13/2025 by

No judgment, but the women featured in Evie Magazine, a “conservative Cosmo” for women 18-34, are more likely than not to show off their breasts. In a nod to the tradwife fashion trend, milkmaid dresses with low décolletage are featured on young, voluptuous white women. An article making the case against body positivity and fat acceptance, “The Return of Skinny,” is accompanied by a photo of a busty white woman on a beach wearing a thong bikini. A photo spread of Eva Vlaardingerbroek showcases the Dutch right-wing activist wearing a gold cross necklace—along with her breasts falling out of a low-cut gingham dress.

To people with conservative views, only some women—those who look and act like ‘real women’—get the privilege of being sexy.

War on Women Report: Trump Slashes Sexual Violence Prevention; GOP Targets Teens’ Repro Rights; Nebraska Abortion Funeral Bill Threatens Miscarriage Care

PUBLISHED 4/30/2025 by and

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:
—Republicans in Indiana have gotten rid of a requirement for schools to teach about consent in sex education classes.
—Some good news out of Georgia: Prosecutors have dropped all charges against 24-year-old Selena Chandler-Scott after the national backlash that came when they arrested her after her miscarriage.
—On Saturday, April 5, over 1,200 demonstrations took place nationwide to protest the recent policies and actions of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
—Legislators in Nebraska are advancing a bill that would require abortion providers to bury or cremate fetal remains and embryonic tissue after an abortion, leaning into fetal personhood arguments.

… and more.