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What the Backlash Against Women’s Leadership Tells Us About Young Men

PUBLISHED 12/29/2025 by

At this year’s Reykjavík Global Forum in November, where 500 global leaders from public and private sectors convened in Iceland, the mood around gender equality was both urgent and reflective. Progress that once felt inevitable now looks fragile. The Reykjavík Index for Leadership reveals concerning declines in how women are perceived for leadership roles across major economies, while conversations about young men and boys have become more heated, polarized and emotionally charged.

While at the forum, I spoke with Richard Reeves, an author and researcher focused on boys and men, and Michelle Harrison, the founding force behind the Reykjavík Index for Leadership, about what’s really going on—and what comes next. Their insights help clarify the current backlash, the urgency of centering young people, and why gender equality must remain a shared project—one that includes all of us.

For Women Spending the Holidays in Prison or a Shelter, You Can Make a Difference

PUBLISHED 12/8/2025 by

Women and girls are the fastest growing incarcerated population in the United States today. The women now in prison are often there because of circumstances that might have put you or me there, too. 

We at Ms. magazine want women in prison to know they are seen and valued. And because domestic violence shelters can be almost as isolating as prisons—and often lack reading material, just as many prisons do—we want to support women in those shelters, too. 

For a tax-deductible donation of just $30, you can help send Ms. to a woman in prison or a domestic violence shelter for a year. And for just $10 more ($40 total), you can get a year’s worth of Ms. for yourself as well.

The Politics of ‘Audit’: How Texas Is Using Bureaucracy to Erase Gender Studies

PUBLISHED 11/11/2025 by , , and | UPDATED 11/14/2025 at 10:27 A.M. PT

Professor Melissa McCoul was dismissed in September after teaching LGBTQ+ themes in her children’s literature course at Texas A&M. Just this week, a faculty council determined McCoul’s firing violated her academic freedom.

But politicians and activists who oppose what they call “woke gender ideology,” are galvanized and doubling down, using this Texas A&M case to push for curricular reviews aimed at eliminating women’s, gender and sexuality studies from public colleges and universities across Texas.

Framed as bureaucratic oversight, conservatives seek to eliminate gender studies and related fields through procedural mechanisms that evade public scrutiny. The assaults on gender studies in Texas are not just a local issue; they are a national bellwether. They signal a coordinated effect to dismantle feminist and queer inquiry and remind us that silence, in the face of repression, is complicity.

Memory, Medicine and Law: Reflecting on the 20th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina @ Washington, D.C., Sept. 11-13

PUBLISHED 9/3/2025 by | UPDATED 9/9/2025 at 10:53 A.M. PT

This fall marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, leaving more than 1,800 people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. Katrina was not just a natural disaster—it was a political, legal and public health catastrophe that exposed deep inequities in the United States. Women, low-income communities and communities of color were hit hardest, and the failures of government response left lasting scars that continue to shape policy and memory today.

To reflect on these legacies, Georgetown University will host a three-day symposium, “Memory, Medicine and Law: Reflecting on the 20th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina,” from Sept. 11-13, 2025, at its Capitol Campus and adjoining Law Center, located at 125 E Street NW in Washington, D.C.

The symposium is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Trump’s Stunts Hide His Real Agenda: Rigging Elections and Gutting Safety Nets

PUBLISHED 8/18/2025 by

Trump’s latest antics—from patrolling D.C. with border agents, to announcing a White House “UFC cage match”—are meant to generate headlines and distract from the real story. Behind the spectacle, his budget slashes SNAP, Medicaid and other lifelines for women and children, while Republicans escalate redistricting schemes to rig the 2026 elections.

Don’t let the chaos fool you: These moves will have devastating, lasting consequences for our democracy and our lives.

Explainer: No, Contraceptives Don’t Cause Abortion

PUBLISHED 8/14/2025 by

Misinformation about contraception is deadly.

Just ask Evaline Chepkemol, a mother of three in Kenya’s rural Narok County—a place with one of the country’s highest maternal death rates. Chepkemol has encountered many women in her community who are fearful of contraceptives.

“They have the belief that if you insert the family planning [device], you either lose the children or will never give birth again,” she told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. “They were saying that when you put in family planning, you will never give birth to any child because the children will disappear,” she explained.

U.S.-Funded Contraceptives Meant for Crisis Zones Are Headed for the Furnace—Unless Congress Acts

PUBLISHED 8/7/2025 by

Nearly $10 million worth of U.S.-funded contraceptives—purchased to support women in some of the most desperate places on Earth—are currently sitting in a Belgian warehouse, slated for destruction. The supplies include long-acting contraceptives such as implants and IUDs, as well as birth control pills, many of which remain sealed, viable and do not expire until 2031.

According to advocates, there are qualified organizations—including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and MSI Reproductive Choices—prepared to accept and distribute the supplies at no additional cost to the U.S. government. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appointed earlier this year, has not authorized their release.

In response, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) have introduced legislation to stop the destruction. The Saving Lives and Taxpayer Dollars Act would require the contraceptives to be released for their intended humanitarian use and prohibit incineration of still-viable medical supplies.

Advocates are urging members of the public to call or email their senators and representatives to demand they pressure the State Department to release the contraceptives, not destroy them.

Sleep Is a Feminist Issue: Why Women’s Rest Is Political

PUBLISHED 8/1/2025 by

Despite being among the top reasons women seek medical care, sleep disruptions during menopause have been understudied and undertreated. For women, sleep problems peak during the menopausal years, which span from their 40s to early 60s. Even more alarming, suicide rates also rise during these years. And the research shows that even amid immense hardship, the ability to sleep well buffers against suicidal thoughts. Yet, this crisis remains largely ignored.

Federal research, which now faces catastrophic budget cuts, has long neglected women’s sleep and menopause. And of course, in America, midlife women are holding the social safety net together, picking up the pieces of a broken welfare system.

Sleep is not a luxury. It is a nightly ritual restoring the brain through cellular growth and repair. To understand how we got here, we must examine the long history of how women’s sleep—or lack thereof—has been weaponized against us.

How Dare We Not: On the Feminist Future of Care 

PUBLISHED 7/24/2025 by

On July 30, Medicare and Medicaid turn 60. The anniversary probably won’t receive much celebration, not even a decent sheet cake at Costco. But for those of us who’ve ever been sick, broke or chronically both—and let’s be real, that’s most of us—these two programs are more than government policies. They are lifelines. Feminist infrastructure. Miracles wrapped in red tape. 

Medicaid and Medicare are the government’s half-hearted whisper of “okay, fine, you can live,” buried under broken fax machines and six hours of hold music—and still, they are miraculous. 

So let’s get to work with petitions, protests, poetry and better policy. When we fight for these programs, we’re not begging for scraps. We’re demanding infrastructure for care. We’re saying, Our dignity is not a rounding error. We are not too complicated or too expensive or too much. We are exactly the point. 

Happy birthday Medicaid and Medicare, the baddest Leos in American policy—dramatic, protective, always carrying us all on their backs while being called “too much.” We see you. We need you. And we’ll fight for you. How dare we not?

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

No-Rehire Clauses Let Employers Retaliate Against Harassment Victims … Legally

PUBLISHED 7/23/2025 by and

For Charlotte Bennett, alleged harassment at the hands of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) led to years of costly litigation and “extraordinary pain.” Bennett’s state-level case was finally settled in April, with a little-known clause included: If a worker settles a case accusing their employer of sexual harassment, discrimination or any form of abuse, their employer may legally include a “no-rehire” clause in the settlement. This clause bars accusers from seeking future jobs with their employer.

No-rehire clauses can also bar workers from employment with any affiliates, subsidiaries or partners of their ex-employer’s organization. If another company hires an employee, and it is later acquired by or merged with a company that employee has a no-rehire clause with, a federal court affirmed in 2023 that the worker can legally be terminated from that new job, too.

In an age of mergers and monopolies, the consequences of a no-rehire clause may follow a victim of workplace harassment forever. Depending on the size of their former employer, an ex-employee could be barred from hundreds of different companies if their settlement includes a no-rehire clause.

New York state Assemblymember Catalina Cruz (D) introduced AB 293 to fully ban such clauses across the state. If the Assembly bill and its Senate counterpart were passed, New York would join California and Vermont as the only states prohibiting or limiting these clauses.