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The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to healthcare. But Ms.
Anna Malaika Tubbs, Ph.D., was expecting her first child while writing her debut book. The subject matter for The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation was excerpted from the biographies of the nation’s most consequential civil rights…
Summertime—and the fight for democracy—is sizzling, especially in the states. Here’s what is happening across the country. Sudden shakeups in U.S. Senate elections have foisted reproductive rights front and center.
This issue is featured in the Summer 2026 issue of ESSENCE, on newsstands July 21st. On a cool morning in May, Harriet Tubman arrived at the chambers of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson , the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States since the nation’s birth 250 years ago.
It started in 3rd grade, when I would grab every history textbook and flip to the map to see if Cabo Verde , my parents’ birthplace, would be shown. Most often, it wasn’t, to my disappointment. I would wonder if our archipelago had disappeared into the binding of the book.
Today, Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross takes flight with a second season on Roku. This time around, Ross is heading through three different places: Melbourne, Gstaad, and Thailand. Naturally, each climate requires a different hairstyle.
On this day in 1990, Justice William Brennan retired from the Supreme Court after nearly 34 years of service. He is among the longest-serving and most influential justices in the history of the court. At the Court This morning at 9:30 a.m.
In response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that preserves birthright citizenship, Texas officials are wielding their authority to clamp down on birth tourism, primarily through investigating or suing health providers.
It was a frigid January morning in Minneapolis. Alexa quietly stepped outside her apartment to heat her car for her baby, who was waiting inside in her crib. They immediately spotted her. At the edge of the complex, the doors of a van carrying Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swung open.
Growing up in the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church, Lynn and Katherine — ProPublica is using only their middles names to protect their identities — said they were victims of sexual abuse from family members who may also have been abused.
We’re in the thick of summer heat and it’s a real scorcher most days. With us half way through the season, there are only a few more weeks left to soak up the sun. If you are preparing to hop on a yacht, jet-set across the country for a European summer, or maybe just chill on the sandy beaches of th…
My journey to the World Cup was about more than soccer. I have learned to travel with a level of preparation most people never have to consider. Before I leave home, I calculate distance, timing, energy, accessibility, and what I will do if something does not go as planned.
All the NSFW details on how to do this position, according to sex therapists.
Imagine being nine months pregnant with no clinic to give birth in and no skilled birth attendant anywhere within reach. This was the reality for 73,000 women who were weeks away from their due date in my native province of Sindh, Pakistan, when catastrophic floods submerged the region in 2022.
With every busy season comes the urge to try and, well, relax. And, post ESSENCE Festival, for our editors, it’s all about looking to low pressure beauty and wellness trends that feel as good as they look.
Trump's Department of Education issued a Dear Colleague Letter on July 10 warning schools they risk losing federal funds if they fail to protect students from sexual misconduct by school employees. The accompanying press release announced that the Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will open…
Collage by Alex Bandoni/ProPublica. Source image: Roberto Schmidt/Stringer/Getty Images. For decades, the U.S. Department of State gave money to groups protecting free speech, human rights and persecuted minorities in poor and authoritarian countries.
If there’s one celebrity whose World Cup wardrobe has been just as exciting as the matches themselves, it’s Ciara’s . Throughout the tournament, the singer has delivered a series of standout looks that prove sports style can be equal parts effortless and fashion-forward.
Click to expand Image People congregate outside a World Food Programme food distribution center in Yakawlang, Bamyan province, Afghanistan, January 1, 2026. © 2026 Sayed Hassib/Reuters A man in western Afghanistan recently told me that his neighbors knock on his door to ask for food.
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.
The man identified as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who fatally shot a Colombian immigrant in Maine on Monday had a documented history of domestic violence against two previous wives and his daughters, according to reporting by the Associated Press (AP).
Four years after the fall of Roe , telemedicine is not just a convenience. For thousands of women, it is the best or only option. Telemedicine’s success means that antiabortion threats have grown more sophisticated and intense.
A caved-in roof. A crumbling porch. A memorial water wall in need of restoration. These are just a few areas of the $10 million of deferred maintenance needed at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y.
2026 marks 50 years since pioneering glam rock trio Labelle released their sixth studio album Chameleon , bringing to a close one of the most radical reinventions in music history. Six years earlier, the group affectionately known as the “Sweethearts of the Apollo” shed the demure and polished perso…
Antiabortion Republican senators scored a major win from embattled acting Attorney General Todd Blanche during his contentious confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Justice. Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz used Wednesday's hearing to press Blanche to restrict access to the abortion pil…
Raising a tween, teen, or young adult in today’s world? You’ve got questions. And during the summer when they have more free time? How much independence is too much? When do you hold firm and when do you let go? July is BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month and ESSENCE tapped me, Rochelle R.
When you hear the name Diahann Carroll you think of a mellifluous voice contrasted with a bunch of no-nonsense badass characters that you wanted to be like. She was someone who embodied the word diva in the best possible way.
“terrible time to have a history degree & pattern recognition skill”
Does sex seem more satisfying for your partner than it does for you? Do you give pleasure, but not receive it? You may be a victim of the orgasm gap—snappy branding for a shabby situation. The disparity between orgasm frequency in American women and men was first observed in a 1953 Kinsey Report cal…
During Pride month last year, almost 70,000 LGBTQ+ young people sought specialized help from 988, the national suicide and crisis hotline. That was the last time they were able to do so. As of today, it’s been a year since the 988 hotline’s LGBTQ+ youth services shut down.
Unlike her late brother Lindsey, whose political career spanned 33 years, Darline Graham has never run for or held elected office — until she was appointed to serve the remainder of the U.S. senator’s term this week.
Click to expand Image Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri appeared before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, December 3, 2025. © 2025 International Criminal Court (The Hague) – The International Criminal Court (ICC)’s confirmation of war crimes and crime…
Aasna Sijapati sramashwar July 16, 2026 Senior Research Assistant
Imagine yourself at 90 years old. You can do the splits, dance, and maintain a high quality of life. Seems impossible, right? It’s not. Founder of Ageless Mobility Aliya M Brooks’ grandmother, Millie Cruzat, lived to be 94 years old and could do it all.
Genevieve Meyer describes her childhood in the 1980s as being filled with “a lot of violence, a lot of volatility and a lot of instability.” She was raised in Southern California by a single mom who suffered significant mental health issues and, later, she had an abusive stepfather.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Tuesday, June 30, that states may prohibit transgender students from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity, holding that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment does not prohibit such bans.
The Dangerous Unraveling Of The United States’ Family Planning Safety Net Policy Analysis jloewenberg July 16, 2026 July 14, 2026 Exclude from search No Automatic Redirect Off
In every issue of Ms. , we track research on our progress in the fight for equality , catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones . We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.
One of the more controversial topics concerning the Supreme Court is how attuned justices should be to public opinion. An even more fundamental question, however, is how closely public opinion matches the Supreme Court’s decisions.
In September 2016, a distraught mother sent infant formula maker Mead Johnson a message: “REMOVE ME FROM YOUR LIST!!!! DO NOT EMAIL OR MAIL ME ANY MORE! “It is because of your animal based pre-term artificial baby food crap that you peddle to hospital NICU’s that my son is dead from NEC.
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