In August, the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Texas at Austin will close. I joined the department last year after leaving the University of Iowa’s Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies department, which also closed this year. As programs in women’s studies, ethnic studies and Black studies disappear across the country, I’ve found myself reflecting on how…
The 2000s opened with a contradiction: Feminist ideas had never been more popular—polls found that overwhelming majorities of women and substantial majorities of men agreed with the basic definition of feminism—yet conservatives controlled Washington and were steadily advancing restrictions on reproductive freedom.
George W. Bush entered the White House and immediately reinstated the global gag…
The 1990s began with feminists determined not to surrender the ground they had fought for in the Reagan era—and almost immediately, the stakes became impossible to ignore.
In October 1991, millions of Americans watched Anita Hill testify before an all-male Senate Judiciary Committee about sexual harassment allegations against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Outside the hearing room, seven…
The 1980s opened with a sense of uncertainty for feminists. Just years after the Supreme Court's _Roe v. Wade_ decision, the passage of Title IX and the near-ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, Ronald Reagan swept into office backed by a newly energized religious right determined to reverse many of the gains women had won in the previous decade.
Across the country, antiabortion activists…
In 1972, when _Ms._ first hit newsstands, abortion was illegal in most of the country. Women could be denied credit cards, mortgages and loans without a husband’s signature. Newspapers still segregated job listings into “Help Wanted: Male” and “Help Wanted: Female.” There were no federal protections against pregnancy discrimination, no domestic violence shelters in most communities, and only a…
Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
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This week marked the 107th anniversary of the U.S. Senate’s passage of the 19th Amendment, a…
At first glance, Natalie Heller Mills has everything the tradwife internet promises: a beautiful home, a growing family and a devoted audience eager to consume her carefully curated vision of traditional womanhood. But in Caro Claire Burke's viral debut novel _Yesteryear_ , that fantasy begins to crack.
As Natalie is forced to confront the realities behind the lifestyle she promotes, Burke…
The post Sophia, Bamba, and Catherine: The Last Princesses of Punjab appeared first on DailyArt Magazine.
This timeline traces key moments, movements and leaders that have shaped the fight for women’s rights in the United States and beyond. Compiled by editors at _Ms._ and researchers from the National Women’s History Alliance, it highlights the interconnected histories of feminism, abolition, labor organizing, civil rights, reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ liberation and democratic participation.
The…
Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
This week:
—June primary contests will take place in 18 states.
—Concerning trends are taking place for…
What I experienced during my 2014 run for office wasn’t entirely unfamiliar to me.
The year before, I had run for president of the Young Democrats of America (YDA), a national political party office role, against a popular opponent. The opponent was a Black man, so race wasn’t a factor in the election; however, gender was.
Before my campaign, I was vice president of YDA and had heard only good…
On World Day Against Witch-Hunts, let's take a look at depictions of the witch in modern art, and pause to consider the women who still wait for justice after being falsely accused of witchcraft.
The post World Day Against Witch Hunts: A Burning Issue appeared first on DailyArt Magazine.
In one of the film’s most surreal scenes, the twins at the center of Is God Is—Racine, “the Rough One,” and Anaia, “the Quiet One”—pretend to be strippers for a room full of men. But while Racine is welcomed, Anaia is rejected because her scarred face disrupts the men’s fantasies. That moment crystallizes one of the film’s central questions: What happens when Black women refuse to shrink…
Our podcast platform _Ms._ Studios has launched a newly updated miniseries: _Ms. Book Club_ , examining the last 250 years of U.S. history through a feminist lens and asking what the nation’s founding ideals have meant in practice for women, Black Americans and other historically marginalized communities.
Across the four-part series, Dr. Michele Goodwin—host of _On the Issues_ and executive…
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Discover this DailyArt postcard set, a unique way to appreciate and share the creativity of women artists throughout history.
The post 10 Amazing Paintings by Women You Might Not Know Yet (And You Can Get as Postcards) appeared first on DailyArt Magazine.
On the morning of Saturday, May 16, in Selma, Alabama, activists and organizers gathered near the Edmund Pettus Bridge before traveling to Montgomery for the “All Roads Lead to the South” national day of action protesting attacks on voting rights and Black political representation across the South.
The chants echoed through downtown Montgomery: “The power is with the people.” “We won’t go…
The post Femininity in Francesca Woodman’s Photographs appeared first on DailyArt Magazine.
More than a century after suffragists Alice Burke and Nell Richardson launched their 1916 cross-country campaign for women’s voting rights, the modern Driving the Vote for Equality tour is again carrying the fight for constitutional equality across America.
This month, the Golden Flyer II traveled through Arizona and California—places shaped by immigration, labor struggles, border politics and…
A journey through 40 years of Tracey Emin's groundbreaking art. Passion, pain and healing are explored through painting, sculpture, textiles and video.
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The post Adélaïde Labille-Guiard: Female Icon of 18th-Century Paris appeared first on DailyArt Magazine.
For decades, pioneering legal scholar and activist Kimberlé Crenshaw has shaped the language we use to understand systemic injustice—from coining the term “intersectionality” to helping launch the #SayHerName movement.
In her new memoir, _Backtalker: An American Memoir_ , Crenshaw traces the personal and political experiences that shaped her work, while warning that the attacks on critical race…
The fearsome Great Mother is an archetype appearing in all cultures and all times. Here are our top 10 powerful mother goddess sculptures!
The post 10 Powerful Mother Goddess Sculptures appeared first on DailyArt Magazine.
Far from mimosa brunches and hallmark greetings, the first Mother’s Day in the United States occurred against the scourge of war. In 1870, abolitionist and suffragist Julie Ward Howe who still had the horrors of the Civil War on her mind and was disturbed by the plight of war abroad called for an international movement of mothers as a way to call for peace and to protest the devastation of…
Last week, while much of Washington’s attention was fixed on the highly choreographed visit of the king of England to the U.S. Capitol, a very different gathering was taking place just a few hallways away. Survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking, family members of Virginia Giuffre, advocates and several members of Congress packed into a small conference room in the Cannon House Office Building…
Speaking in early February, while the nation was still reeling from the killings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents, Jackson Katz, a leading voice in gender violence prevention and masculinity studies, and Loretta Ross, a celebrated Black feminist scholar and cofounder of SisterSong, examined the deadly ways misogyny and racism intersect in Donald Trump’s…
Lani Guinier’s birthday was earlier this month. She would have been 76 years old. And as I find myself doing each year, I return not just to her work—which speaks powerfully on its own—but to the moments that shaped my understanding of it.
I first met Lani Guinier when I was 15, at a crowded living room gathering where she spoke with remarkable clarity about the Voting Rights Act, representation…
Despite having some of the most restrictive laws and among the worst reproductive health outcomes in the nation, Louisiana has a long history of reproductive rights and justice advocacy that spans religious, racial and cultural lines. A recent archival exhibit hosted by the Newcomb Institute at Tulane University showcased physical and digital archival collections at Tulane, along with personal…
With a global market worth of over $56 billion, handbags are one of the main drivers of the fashion industry.
However, as Kathleen B. Casey shows in her latest book, _The Things She Carried: The Social History of the Purse in America_ , they are more than just a fashionable accessory: Women’s purses are an important marker of identity and social status. They are a statement of power, of…
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