The post The Most-Read Ms. Stories of 2025 appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

We had institutional support from Northeastern University at a time when universities and other institutions were publicly and ceremoniously committing to funding DEI related initiatives in the tidal wave of so-called racial reckoning that occurred in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. The first symposium took place two months later on a cold and clear February morning in 2022. This annual gathering became an important tradition that we looked forward to each year.

This week, we mark four years since the woman born Gloria Jean Watkins, a Black feminist writer, academic, professor and activist became an ancestor. But in 2026, there will be no bell hooks symposium at my university. Due to university wide fiscal austerity, we will not mark the anniversary this year in any official way. It is a tremendous loss, for our students and for our community locally, nationally and internationally.

As I grappled with my own grief over this loss, I had to also reflect deeply about what it means to be a Black feminist scholar in the academy today.

The post bell hooks Taught Us to Imagine Freedom. Universities Are Forcing Us to Fight for It. appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

This year’s top feminist moments reveal how artists, storytellers and creators confronted regressive politics with imagination, joy, righteous anger and expansive visions of humanity.

The post 2025’s Top Feminist Moments in Pop Culture appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

How are formerly incarcerated Black and brown transgender, gender-variant and intersex people managing to do this work in the nightmare that is 2025? 

The answer is simple: We take care of ourselves, and we take care of each other, just like we always have. 

(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 ‘We Take Care of Each Other’: Building Community in a Brutal Political Moment appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

A new documentary from ProPublica, Before a Breath—based on the outlet's Pulitzer Prize finalist reporting—follows three mothers who turn their grief from stillbirth into advocacy for safer pregnancies and better outcomes for expecting parents.

The post Twenty Thousand Stillbirths a Year, and No Federal Plan to Prevent Them appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Last week, what could have become the most punitive abortion law in the U.S., SB 323, failed in the South Carolina Senate. The bill proposed banning abortion in almost all circumstances, criminalizing people who sought abortion care, and removed any exceptions for rape, incest or fetal anomaly currently written into the state's already strict six-week ban.

The defeat of SB 323 is a victory that was won by dedicated and fierce advocates from across the state and across the country. But South Carolina has been actively engaged in policing the bodies of pregnant women, and in criminalizing pregnancy, for decades.

The prosecutorial “hold my beer” approach to criminalizing abortion shows us not only just broken the criminal legal system is, but also, just how little regard they have for the humanity of people with the capacity for pregnancy. 

The post A Bill Criminalizing Abortion Failed in the South Carolina Senate, But S.C. Prosecutors Have Long Treated Pregnancy as a Crime appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

The post A Landmark Self-Defense Case in the Age of Mass Incarceration: A New Documentary Tells Joan Little’s Story appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

Nicole is a single mother working two jobs. She was a part of the first round of Magnolia Mother’s Trust (MMT), where she received one year of guaranteed income. MMT has helped more than 500 mothers since it began in 2018.

"My ideal future is one where we aren’t living paycheck to paycheck—where I can pay all our bills, provide stability, and even take a trip on the weekends for fun, just to enjoy life together. I want more for Kylie and me."

The post ‘I’m Working Just to Survive’: A Single Mom on SNAP Cuts, Two Jobs and Big Dreams appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

In fact, SNAP recipients are 45 percent less likely to experience food insecurity, demonstrating that SNAP is one of the most effective anti-poverty programs we have in the U.S.

The post A Hunger for Justice: Why SNAP Cuts Are a Feminist Public Health Issue appeared first on Ms. Magazine.

As the political pundits do their thing across the airwaves, here is yet another hot take on it all—feminist style.

The post A Brighter Day in the United States: Feminist Lessons from Election 2025 appeared first on Ms. Magazine.