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Inside Ms.: 25 Years of the Magazine and the Feminist Movement
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July 27, 2025
A FORMER EXECUTIVE EDITOR TELLS THE STORY OF THE MAGAZINE
Mary Thom (1944-2013) was a journalist who was also an editor and then executive editor of Ms.; she also edited the book, ‘Letters to Ms.’ (She died in a motorcycle accident.)
She begins this 1977 book with the statement, “By the summer of 1970, every major national magazine had done its cover story on feminism… August 26 was the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States… New York State was moving toward liberalizing the punitive, pre-Roe v. Wade laws against abortion… Betty Friedan and others had founded the National Organization for Women [NOW] in 1966… In the summer of 1971, a group of women who had emerged as feminist leaders in the national political setting---including Congresswomen Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm, as well as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem---sent out a call … to organize the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC)… The caucus was an instant hit…. I worked as a [NWPC] volunteer staffer in the fall of 1971… With the NWPC and NOW, feminism in the United States could boast two national membership organizations.” (Pg. 1-7)
She continues, “Gloria Steinem… knew that interest in the women’s movement was widespread… The audiences were always hungry for information. In an attempt to meet that need, Steinem and … Brenda Feigen… started a research and referral organization, the Women’s Action Alliance (WAA)… the idea of a national feminist publication began to take shape. At first it was only to be a newsletter… Brenda Feigen had been pushing all along for … a national magazine that could explore ideas and people and programs in more depth… Gloria Steinem was backing her way into Ms. … while she was reaching an audience as a speaker, she did need a comfortable vehicle for her writing---one that simply did not exist.” (Pg. 7-9)
For the new magazine’s name, “‘Ms.’ was a risky choice… [The term] was hardly common, and anyone who worked for Ms. in its first couple of years was condemned to explain endless times [how] the name was pronounced… There had been a strong contingent that had favored ‘Sisters,’ but Gloria Steinem held out for the more symbolic ‘Ms.’ … Ms. clearly broke with tradition, fairly screaming out that this was more than just another women’s magazine. The Ms. woman was independent. She would not be defined by her relationship, or lack of it, to a man.” (Pg. 13-14)
She recounts, “If the bookers for television shows had been at all receptive to the idea, Steinem would have been delighted to bring unknown or lesser-known women along on the preview issue publicity tour… But there was no doubt about whom the talk show wanted to feature, or whom the reporters wanted to quote. The fact that Gloria Steinem was so clearly favored by the media was also making Betty Harris extremely angry and at times out of control.” (Pg. 26-27)
She notes, “Its agenda did make Ms. seem more like a social movement than a national magazine… And because the pressure of monthly deadlines did nothing to diminish the urgency of feminist goals, Ms. had to operate, for better or worse, both as a publishing enterprise and a center for activism.” (Pg. 44-45)
She reports, “Freidan and Steinem had never been close colleagues of friends, although in the past year they had collaborated… Friedan chose the pages of McCall’s to launch her assault, in which she accused Steinem and Abzug… of ‘female chauvinism.’ … she accused Steinem of making a woman feel apologetic for ‘loving her husband and children’… Ms. staff members [were] stunned and angered by Friedan’s attack…The story received substantial press, some of it stereotyping the confrontation as a catfight…. It’s a oversimplification to say that Betty Friedan was suffering from an acute case of hurt feelings because of the growing popularity of Gloria Steinem and Ms. Her subsequent writings.. demonstrate the she remained upset and embarrassed by what she saw as an antimale bias in feminism.” (Pg. 50-52)
In 1975, “a reconstituted remnant of the radical feminist Redstockings… accused Gloria Steinam and … Ms. Magazine, of being agents of the Central Intelligence Agency… the accusations seemed so off-the-wall that the first reaction at the Ms. offices was to treat the press release as a joke….. Gloria Steinem finally did… answer the Redstockings indictment… And she did acknowledge that [as a student] working with a project that involved CIA funding was a mistake. ” (Pg. 74-79
She reports that Alice Walker “joined the Ms. staff for a year or two… Walker left the Ms. staff and moved to California until the end of 1986 when she abruptly withdrew her name from the masthead… The December 1986 issue, with two white pregnant women on the cover, seemed to be the last straw… she wrote, ‘a people of color cover once or twice a year is not enough. In real life, people of color occur with much more frequency.” (Pg. 89)
She points out, ‘Over the years, Ms. readers reserved their most serious and sustained criticism ..[because] Many Ms. readers did not want Ms. to carry cigarette advertising. Some hated the alcohol ads as well… At the time, most of the Ms. editors smoked… As evidence accumulated on the dangers of smoking… the ads became much harder to defend. But tobacco advertising was such a large category for Ms. and for magazines in general once television banned them, no one on staff thought the magazine could survive without the income from cigarette ads… [One reader] wrote, “I cannot help but wish Ms. would let go of its DEPENDENCY on revenue from liquor and cigarette advertising… Ms. is in a position to model something different.’” (Pg. 135-137
She states, “Suzanne Levine believes that Ms. suffered more from Steinem’s absence, whether at the Smithsonian or fund-raising… than the editors knew at the time… When Steinem did not have a daily involvement with the magazine, ‘there was a level of imagination and optimism and freshness that we couldn’t duplicate… When those things were taken away it brought down the level of creativity and honesty at the magazine.'" (Pg. 170)
She recounts, “In September 1982, an article… described a small, one-campus study … that unearthed a disturbing degree of sexual aggression on the part of a small percentage of male students… The Ms. study, which generated a national controversy on the definition of rape and responsible sexual behavior, and the activism of rape crisis advocates on campus had an enormous impact on how seriously the problem was treated by colleges and universities across the country.” (Pg. 201)
She notes, “As the magazine approached its 15th anniversary in 1987, once again precariously in debt, its editors asked readers for help… And it is thanks to its readers that the institution of Ms. turned out to be more resilient than anyone could have hoped… Steinem and Robin Morgan returned to reinvent Ms. as a reader-supported magazine without advertising… [Readers] would pay a premium for their magazine.” (Pg. 216-217)
This book will be ‘must reading’ for fans of Ms. magazine.
Mary Thom (1944-2013) was a journalist who was also an editor and then executive editor of Ms.; she also edited the book, ‘Letters to Ms.’ (She died in a motorcycle accident.)
She begins this 1977 book with the statement, “By the summer of 1970, every major national magazine had done its cover story on feminism… August 26 was the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States… New York State was moving toward liberalizing the punitive, pre-Roe v. Wade laws against abortion… Betty Friedan and others had founded the National Organization for Women [NOW] in 1966… In the summer of 1971, a group of women who had emerged as feminist leaders in the national political setting---including Congresswomen Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm, as well as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem---sent out a call … to organize the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC)… The caucus was an instant hit…. I worked as a [NWPC] volunteer staffer in the fall of 1971… With the NWPC and NOW, feminism in the United States could boast two national membership organizations.” (Pg. 1-7)
She continues, “Gloria Steinem… knew that interest in the women’s movement was widespread… The audiences were always hungry for information. In an attempt to meet that need, Steinem and … Brenda Feigen… started a research and referral organization, the Women’s Action Alliance (WAA)… the idea of a national feminist publication began to take shape. At first it was only to be a newsletter… Brenda Feigen had been pushing all along for … a national magazine that could explore ideas and people and programs in more depth… Gloria Steinem was backing her way into Ms. … while she was reaching an audience as a speaker, she did need a comfortable vehicle for her writing---one that simply did not exist.” (Pg. 7-9)
For the new magazine’s name, “‘Ms.’ was a risky choice… [The term] was hardly common, and anyone who worked for Ms. in its first couple of years was condemned to explain endless times [how] the name was pronounced… There had been a strong contingent that had favored ‘Sisters,’ but Gloria Steinem held out for the more symbolic ‘Ms.’ … Ms. clearly broke with tradition, fairly screaming out that this was more than just another women’s magazine. The Ms. woman was independent. She would not be defined by her relationship, or lack of it, to a man.” (Pg. 13-14)
She recounts, “If the bookers for television shows had been at all receptive to the idea, Steinem would have been delighted to bring unknown or lesser-known women along on the preview issue publicity tour… But there was no doubt about whom the talk show wanted to feature, or whom the reporters wanted to quote. The fact that Gloria Steinem was so clearly favored by the media was also making Betty Harris extremely angry and at times out of control.” (Pg. 26-27)
She notes, “Its agenda did make Ms. seem more like a social movement than a national magazine… And because the pressure of monthly deadlines did nothing to diminish the urgency of feminist goals, Ms. had to operate, for better or worse, both as a publishing enterprise and a center for activism.” (Pg. 44-45)
She reports, “Freidan and Steinem had never been close colleagues of friends, although in the past year they had collaborated… Friedan chose the pages of McCall’s to launch her assault, in which she accused Steinem and Abzug… of ‘female chauvinism.’ … she accused Steinem of making a woman feel apologetic for ‘loving her husband and children’… Ms. staff members [were] stunned and angered by Friedan’s attack…The story received substantial press, some of it stereotyping the confrontation as a catfight…. It’s a oversimplification to say that Betty Friedan was suffering from an acute case of hurt feelings because of the growing popularity of Gloria Steinem and Ms. Her subsequent writings.. demonstrate the she remained upset and embarrassed by what she saw as an antimale bias in feminism.” (Pg. 50-52)
In 1975, “a reconstituted remnant of the radical feminist Redstockings… accused Gloria Steinam and … Ms. Magazine, of being agents of the Central Intelligence Agency… the accusations seemed so off-the-wall that the first reaction at the Ms. offices was to treat the press release as a joke….. Gloria Steinem finally did… answer the Redstockings indictment… And she did acknowledge that [as a student] working with a project that involved CIA funding was a mistake. ” (Pg. 74-79
She reports that Alice Walker “joined the Ms. staff for a year or two… Walker left the Ms. staff and moved to California until the end of 1986 when she abruptly withdrew her name from the masthead… The December 1986 issue, with two white pregnant women on the cover, seemed to be the last straw… she wrote, ‘a people of color cover once or twice a year is not enough. In real life, people of color occur with much more frequency.” (Pg. 89)
She points out, ‘Over the years, Ms. readers reserved their most serious and sustained criticism ..[because] Many Ms. readers did not want Ms. to carry cigarette advertising. Some hated the alcohol ads as well… At the time, most of the Ms. editors smoked… As evidence accumulated on the dangers of smoking… the ads became much harder to defend. But tobacco advertising was such a large category for Ms. and for magazines in general once television banned them, no one on staff thought the magazine could survive without the income from cigarette ads… [One reader] wrote, “I cannot help but wish Ms. would let go of its DEPENDENCY on revenue from liquor and cigarette advertising… Ms. is in a position to model something different.’” (Pg. 135-137
She states, “Suzanne Levine believes that Ms. suffered more from Steinem’s absence, whether at the Smithsonian or fund-raising… than the editors knew at the time… When Steinem did not have a daily involvement with the magazine, ‘there was a level of imagination and optimism and freshness that we couldn’t duplicate… When those things were taken away it brought down the level of creativity and honesty at the magazine.'" (Pg. 170)
She recounts, “In September 1982, an article… described a small, one-campus study … that unearthed a disturbing degree of sexual aggression on the part of a small percentage of male students… The Ms. study, which generated a national controversy on the definition of rape and responsible sexual behavior, and the activism of rape crisis advocates on campus had an enormous impact on how seriously the problem was treated by colleges and universities across the country.” (Pg. 201)
She notes, “As the magazine approached its 15th anniversary in 1987, once again precariously in debt, its editors asked readers for help… And it is thanks to its readers that the institution of Ms. turned out to be more resilient than anyone could have hoped… Steinem and Robin Morgan returned to reinvent Ms. as a reader-supported magazine without advertising… [Readers] would pay a premium for their magazine.” (Pg. 216-217)
This book will be ‘must reading’ for fans of Ms. magazine.
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