Photo courtesy of Springboard to Opportunities; art by Brandi Phipps
‘After-School Care Was Helping Me Work’: A Mississippi Mom on Raising Children, Running a Business and Navigating Cuts to Support
Front and Center is a groundbreaking series of op-eds created in partnership with the Magnolia Mother’s Trust, which aims to put front and center the voices of Black women most affected by the often-abstract policies currently debated at the national level. The series highlights the success of Springboard to Opportunities’ trust, which since 2019 has given $1,000 per month for 12 months to about 100 families per year, all headed by Black women living in federally subsidized housing.
What possibilities could open up for low-income families if financial survival weren’t always top of mind? What dreams would these mothers and families be able to pursue? What activism and community leadership might arise? The series will answer these and other questions, by placing one mother’s story front and center.
Karlonda is a cosmetologist, mother of two daughters with a son on the way, and the recipient of one year of guaranteed income from the Magnolia Mother’s Trust. She runs her own business from home and has also worked in dental assisting and childcare.
“I have a dental assistant certification and a personal assistant certification. I have also worked in childcare. … I was never offered paid time off or benefits in those jobs. … When I had my daughters, I did not get paid parental leave. I had to save money while I was pregnant because I knew I was not going to get any paid leave. I took six weeks off, but I was penny-pinching because I still had to provide and pay bills.
“Six weeks is not a long time. I feel like I missed out on bonding with my babies because I had to go back to work so quickly.
“Every job should offer maternity leave. Most jobs do not really care about people who are pregnant or what they may be going through. …
“My SNAP was recently cut by about $400. At that time, it felt like everything was getting cut: vouchers, SNAP and other help. Sometimes you do not know what is going on unless you go up there and ask for yourself. Normally, you might get a letter in the mail, but I did not get an explanation.”
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From Mormonism to Ms. Magazine: A Former Tradwife’s Story of Unlearning Submission and Reclaiming My Voice
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What Accountability for Epstein’s Network Would Require
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‘The Story Is Not Finished’: Robin Morgan, Feminist Pioneer and Former Ms. Editor in Chief, in Her Very Last Interview
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Why Does Getting Menopause Care Still Require So Much Work?
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Restricting Mifepristone Access Could Empower Abusers
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Female Student-Athletes File Title IX Lawsuit Against UC Davis for Sex Discrimination, Condemn Treating Women Like ‘Second-Class Citizens’
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The Difference Between His Safety and Hers
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Tradwives, Turning Point and the Business of Anti-Feminism (with Madeline Peltz)
What’s the deal with tradwives? From Turning Point to Instagram, the movement has found a strong following—and built a commercial empire. It’s even hit the runways, marketing “traditional” clothing to women as the next wave of what’s fashion forward. But what’s behind the curtain? Beyond the idyllic images of returning to the prairie and a slower pace of life, there’s discontent, abuse and women who want out.
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- ICC Arrest Warrants Challenge the Normalization of Taliban Rule and Gender Persecution
- Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month Has Ended,
But the Need for Research Remains - The Cornell 57: How Educational Institutions Fail Women
- New Poll Finds Voters Concerned about Rights and Democracy Ahead of 2026 Midterms
- Addressing the Economic Costs of Sexual Violence: The Survivors’ Rights Restitution Act
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Survivors Describe How Epstein Used Their Modeling Dreams to Abuse Them
Jeffrey Epstein “used the modeling industry as a lever to try to get girls into his orbit,” says survivor Lisa Phillips.
Phillips describes how Epstein operated: He asked about her career, about how often she talked to her father (she told him not often), and he specifically wanted to know about her goals as a model. She told him her “big dream” was to work for Ford Models. He told her that she and the other model had to stay over on the island, then assaulted her later that night.
Months later, she says, he called to say he had arranged a meeting with his “great friend” Katie Ford, the CEO of Ford Models. Phillips met with Ford and became a model for the agency.
“Models were being sent to every charity event, every modeling party,” she says, “everything organized through Katie Ford and agents. … It was always us younger girls and older men. We [felt] our bodies weren’t ours and we would just have to put up with it to keep [our] career.”
Part 1 of The Pipeline to Predators, a four-part Ms. investigation into the modeling industry’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein and survivors’ fight for accountability.
Close the Victim-Blaming Loophole the Cornell 7 Exposed
Ten years ago, Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Stanford University student and swimmer Brock Turner to six months in county jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster at a frat party. He served three months.
Feminists didn’t just get angry—we organized. Two years later, we recalled Persky with nearly 62 percent of the vote.
Now the same crisis has arrived at Cornell. It is time to organize again.
Under New York penal law, a person too intoxicated to consent counts as “mentally incapacitated” only if the substance was given to them without their consent. Unless they are unconscious or physically unable to communicate, a person who is stumbling, slurring and incoherent is treated as capable of consent, so long as they took the drink or the drug willingly.
Look at what that rule assumes: If someone else spikes your drink, the law says you could not consent. If you poured it yourself, the law says you could, however incapacitated you were. That is consent manufactured out of a decision to drink. It rests on the oldest victim-blaming idea there is: A woman who gets drunk is asking for it. The only natural consequence of drinking too much is a hangover. Sexual assault is not caused by alcohol. It is caused by rapists choosing to rape, and nothing else.
We cannot allow political gatekeeping to preserve a law that protects perpetrators and abandons victims. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie must stop blocking progress and bring the voluntary intoxication bill to a vote immediately. New Yorkers deserve to know where each of their elected officials stands on victim blaming.
In a year when feminist victories are few and far between, this is one we can help win. Take two minutes to send Speaker Heastie an email and demand a vote on this bill. You can also call his office at 518-455-3791.
