California

Women’s and Girls’ Wrestling Is Ready for Its Modern Era

PUBLISHED 12/26/2025 by and

Women’s and girls’ wrestling has grown considerably in the U.S. since the late ’80s. After the sport’s debut at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, more and more girls began joining high school wrestling teams as more high schools began making teams for girls.

Although the sport carries a long history, women’s wrestling is now more popular than it’s ever been. The sport seeks to create community after being ignored for many years, and will be featured at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. It will be in that moment in Los Angeles, under the Olympic flame, that women’s and girls’ wrestling will close the chapter of its trailblazing journey and launch into a modern era.

How the Trump Administration Used a National Guard Tragedy to Accelerate Its Anti-Immigrant Agenda

PUBLISHED 12/20/2025 by

Months before the lives of West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Berkstrom and Afghan asylee Rahmanullah Lakanwal collided, the Trump administration planned to bring immigration to a halt from countries like Afghanistan, Somalia, and other nations that supposedly threaten American values. When Lakanwal was charged with first-degree murder in Berkstrom’s Nov. 26 death, the administration seized on this tragedy to redouble its rhetoric against Afghans and others and to usher in the next round of immigration restrictions.

As Spojmie Nasiri, an Afghan American immigration attorney points out, “They are using the tragedy to enact the agenda that they already had.”

Octavia Butler Saw This Coming

PUBLISHED 12/9/2025 by

The Huntington Library, located in San Marino, Calif., launches a new exhibit, Stories from the Library: From Brontë to Butler, on Dec. 13, 2025. This collection is especially renowned for its extensive archive on the personal writings and stories pertaining to science fiction author Octavia Butler, who died too soon at age 58 in 2006 due to a fall outside her home. The prolific writer and MacArthur Grant recipient leaves behind several series of novels and other works of fiction.

Janell Hobson spoke with Black feminist scholar and Butler biographer Susana M. Morris, who relied on the vast archive available at Huntington for her latest book, Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler, which came out earlier this year.

“With Octavia Butler, we get cautionary tales. We could have just listened to her.”

War on Women Report: Antiabortion Extremist Charged in S.C. Shooting; Army OB-GYN Accused of Abusing Over 85 Women Patients

PUBLISHED 12/1/2025 by and | UPDATED 12/4/2025 at 9:06 A.M. PT

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:
—North Dakota’s Supreme Court reinstated a total abortion ban, making it the 13th state with a near-total ban on abortion.
—Trump ordered Catherine Lucey, a woman reporter for Bloomberg, to be “quiet, piggy.”
—The U.S. moved to categorize countries with state-sponsored abortion and DEI policies as violators of human rights.
—Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has sued Planned Parenthood over allegedly “misrepresenting the safety” of abortion pills.
—On Thursday, Dec. 4, an unprecedented law banning doctors from shipping abortion pills takes effect in Texas.
—”The country’s most respected newspaper hosted a conversation about whether women’s equality and freedom was a mistake.”
—Doctor Maj. Blaine McGraw, an OB-GYN at Fort Hood military base in Texas, the third-largest base in the country, is under investigation for sexual abuse against patients. As of Monday, 85 victims have come forward.
—With Jeffrey Epstein survivors watching from the gallery above, the House agreed in a near-unanimous vote to force the release of all files related to the investigation of the convicted sex offender.

… and more.

The Resistance Is Everywhere

PUBLISHED 11/21/2025 by | UPDATED 11/24/2025 at 1:41 P.M. PT

These past 10 months have been tough. Every day a fresh outrage, more trampling of the Constitution and a new attack on common decency. Taking a page from Hollywood, Trump and his administration seem to have embraced a strategy of “everything, everywhere all at once.” 

But, unfortunately for them: The resistance has also been everywhere all at once, too.

There is no doubt that when historians look back on this sordid moment in history, they will conclude that it was women, and feminists, who led the way out of it.

2025’s Pink Wave: Election Night Marks Historic Wins for Women’s Representation

PUBLISHED 11/7/2025 by

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, sports and entertainment, judicial offices and the private sector—with a little gardening mixed in!

This week:
—Elections in Virginia and New Jersey make history for women’s representation in the U.S.
—Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces she will not seek reelection, marking the close to one of the most consequential careers in modern American politics.
—New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announces his transition team will be led entirely by women.

… and more.

Prop 50’s Resounding Victory Shows Activism Can Be Transformed Into Voting

PUBLISHED 11/4/2025 by

California voters have rebuked Republican-led efforts to gerrymander future elections by passing Proposition 50, the Election Rigging Response Act, a temporary redistricting measure designed to create five additional Democratic seats in Congress.

If Democrats secure control of Congress next year, they will choose the House speaker, who appoints all committee chairs. Those chairs could issue subpoenas to members of the Trump administration and launch oversight investigations, which can be broadcast live for the press and the public. Democrats could pass legislation reversing the budget bill enacted by Republicans and signed by Trump on July Fourth. They could also pursue measures to rebuild and expand social and economic protections, and begin the work of healing the country.

Buoyed by this and other victories, grassroots movements are proving that the power of the people is resilient … and growing.

Election Results: Historic Gender Gaps Shape 2025 Outcomes in Virginia, New Jersey and Beyond

PUBLISHED 11/3/2025 by , , , and | UPDATED 11/10/2025 at 12:28 P.M. PT

We’ve curated the results of all the state-by-state election results that feminists most care about.

Together, the early data from this week’s elections paints a clear picture: Women voters were the decisive force in the 2025 elections, driving sweeping Democratic victories across key states. Women turned out at higher rates than men and made up a majority of voters. Support for women’s rights, reproductive freedom, gender equality and fair immigration policies powered a Democratic sweep this election season.

Historic gender gaps reshaped the political landscape:
—In Virginia, 65 percent of women voted for Democrat Abigail Spanberger for governor, compared to just 48 percent of men, a 17-point gender gap. 
—In New Jersey, women backed Democrat Mikie Sherrill by 62 percent, compared with 49 percent of men, a 13-point gap that proved decisive in her win. 

Two New Laws Could Transform Black Maternal Health in California, If We Get Implementation Right

PUBLISHED 10/30/2025 by and

In California—a state where Black women account for 21 percent of pregnancy-related deaths and just 5 percent of births—systemic racism continues to shape maternal outcomes. Despite past reforms, accountability has fallen short.

That is why the recent signing of AB 260, the Sexual and Reproductive Health Care Act, and AB 55, the Freedom to Birth Act, represents a watershed moment.

New California Shield Law Protects Abortion Pill Patients, Prescribers and Pharmacists

PUBLISHED 10/25/2025 by

California’s new shield law, AB 260, represents a bold reimagining of what it means to protect reproductive freedom in a post-Dobbs America. By allowing prescribers and pharmacies to omit identifying information from mifepristone labels—and by ensuring that confidential logs can’t be accessed by out-of-state authorities—the law does more than safeguard privacy. It dismantles the machinery of fear and surveillance that antiabortion extremists have built to track, intimidate and punish people for exercising bodily autonomy. In a nation where a single prescription can become evidence in a courtroom, California has declared: not here.

The legislation’s power lies in its refusal to accept intimidation as the cost of care. It shields patients, prescribers and pharmacists alike, and even mandates coverage of mifepristone regardless of the FDA’s shifting political winds. At its core, AB 260 is both a legal and moral statement—that access to abortion medication is not a privilege to be defended in court, but a right to be protected in law. For anyone navigating pregnancy in hostile states, California’s message carries weight and relief: You can seek care without fear that your name, your doctor’s name or your pharmacist’s name will be weaponized against you.