Weekly Digest

Letter from an Editor | August 31, 2024

Dear John,

Every four years, the fall issue of Ms. is—to be perfectly honest—pretty much the same. We do our best to explain what’s at stake in the upcoming election and how the outcome will affect our lives and future.

This year that wasn’t necessary. Project 2025 did the job for us.

The 887-page Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project laid out exactly how the next Republican president would engineer the reversal of more than 50 years of hard-fought gains for women and girls.

The list on our Fall cover is just the beginning. What else does Project 2025 have in the crosshairs? Ms. contributing editor Carrie N. Baker read the “misogynist manifesto” front to back so you don’t have to. (Click here to take advantage of our special election-year price and get Ms. for just $20.24).

We’ve been keeping our eye on Project 2025 for a while. This week in Ms., we explore a number of the right-wing plan’s overlooked facets—including its radical “guns everywhere” agenda that calls for arming teachers and weakening restrictions on the gun industry; and its plans to revive and expand attacks on election officials by stripping crucial federal resources and weaponizing the Department of Justice against them.

We also launched the latest iteration of our Women & Democracy series: Feminist Journalism is Essential to Democracy. “As a matter of political and policy urgency, global democratic backsliding makes gender equity a crucial investment,” writes our executive director for partnerships and strategy Jennifer Weiss-Wolf in the introduction. “With ascending authoritarianism comes inevitable attempts to rollback women’s, reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights. The connection is not coincidental: There is not an authoritarian playbook that does not make gender a core focus.”

I encourage you to explore the essays and videos in the collection—which feature perspectives from 20+ visionary leaders charting new ground to demonstrate exactly what it looks like to fund and mobilize at the intersection of gender and democracy.

Finally, as we celebrate Labor Day this weekend, I’ll be thinking about the women who can’t take the day off—whether they’re service workers and domestic workers who need to support their families and can’t afford to take a day off work, or women doing the unpaid domestic labor in their own homes. Ms. has always known that labor issues are inseparable from women’s issues—and we stand for the freedom of these women, and join them in their fights for equal wages, for domestic labor to be paid, and to simply take a day of rest.

For Equality,

Kathy Spillar
Executive Editor

P.S. — If you’re not already receiving it, click here to sign up for our Wednesday Ms. Memo newsletter, which from now through November will be your one-stop-shop for feminist elections updates—from the ballot measure contests that will significantly impact abortion and equality, state Supreme Court races, to the races for state legislatures, Congress, the Senate and, of course, the presidency.

This Week's Must-Reads from Ms.

Another Reason Project 2025 Is So Bad for Women? Guns.

Project 2025 Would Fuel the Assault on Election Officials

Invest in Reproductive Rights—That’s What Democracy Looks Like.

Black Women Are Saving the World. Let’s Fund Their Efforts.

Fall 2024 Issue Sneak Peek: Women Are Voting Like Their Lives Depend on it

Tim Walz’s DNC Speech Was a Masculinity-Themed Populist Pep Talk

Tune in for a new episode of Ms. magazine's podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin on

Apple Podcasts + Spotify.

In this episode, we’re joined by two co-hosts of the Webby Award-winning #SistersInLaw podcast to discuss where our nation stands as we approach the 2024 elections—from the ongoing trials faced by former president Donald Trump, to Nikki Haley, to the Supreme Court’s recent opinions and so much more.

We hope you'll listen, subscribe, rate and review today!

U.S. democracy is at a dangerous inflection point—from the demise of abortion rights, to a lack of pay equity and parental leave, to skyrocketing maternal mortality, and attacks on trans health. Left unchecked, these crises will lead to wider gaps in political participation and representation. For 50 years, Ms. has been forging feminist journalism—reporting, rebelling and truth-telling from the front-lines, championing the Equal Rights Amendment, and centering the stories of those most impacted. With all that’s at stake for equality, we are redoubling our commitment for the next 50 years. In turn, we need your help, Support Ms. today with a donation—any amount that is meaningful to you. We are grateful for your loyalty and ferocity.