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Mary Thom

Mary Thom is an author, editor, and journalist who edits the Women’s Media Center Exclusives. An early and long-time editor of Ms. magazine, she now writes and consults for a number of non-profit women’s organizations, including the National Council for Research on Women. Her books include Inside Ms.: 25 Years of the Magazine and the Feminist Movement and Letters to Ms.: 1972-1987. She is editor, with Suzanne Braun Levine, of an oral history, Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of Women and Workers, Rallied Against War and for the Planet, and Shook Up Politics Along the Way (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).

Recent Posts by Mary Thom

EXCLUSIVE: Missing Betty Ford

July 14, 2011 – 1:45 am

ShareBy Mary Thom July 14, 2011 The author, editor of the WMC Exclusives, recalls a moment decades ago that encapsulates the power and purpose of the former First Lady, who died last week at the age of 93.

Oh No! “Sylvia” Cut From Tribune

February 8, 2010 – 1:56 pm

ShareSylvia, Nicole Hollander’s well-loved feminist cartoon strip will no longer appear in her home-town paper as of February 8. The Chicago Tribune is going to a narrower format and decided to cut some strips rather than shrink the comics down from their already nearly unreadable size. But Sylvia fans are not taking it lying down. [...]

When the Bush Becomes a “Desert Shrub”

July 9, 2008 – 4:39 pm

Share“It doesn’t rain here the way it used to.” That was a Senegalese woman’s observation, included in a new report on climate change released by the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO). The woman may not have access to the exact numbers—her country, for example, has experienced a 35 percent decline in rainfall since 1996—but [...]

Swanee Hunt Tells Congress That Women Are Essential to Peace Efforts

May 22, 2008 – 9:39 pm

ShareBy Mary Thom For Swanee Hunt, chair of the Hunt Alternatives Fund and former U.S. ambassador to Austria, women must be allowed to function as peacemakers in crisis spots around the world. She testified on Capitol Hill last week, asking that a House subcommittee take action to enforce the UN resolution that calls for recognizing [...]

Clinton Claims She Has Turned a Corner

March 5, 2008 – 3:13 pm

ShareHillary Clinton reassembled much of her core constituency to win three of four contests Tuesday for the Democratic presidential nomination, including the big prizes of Ohio and Texas. Barack Obama won in Vermont, while Clinton took Rhode Island. John McCain, clinching his race to be the Republican nominee, was heading to Washington to receive the [...]

Clinton Claims She Has Turned a Corner

March 5, 2008 – 11:42 am

ShareBy Mary Thom Hillary Clinton reassembled much of her core constituency to win three of four contests Tuesday for the Democratic

Does Hillary Have an Inner Bella?

January 16, 2008 – 3:04 pm

ShareIn thanking her supporters following her dramatic comeback win in New Hampshire January 8, Hillary Clinton said, “Over the last week, I listened to you and, in the process, found my own voice.” And for that moment at least, she banished the cantankerous, frustrated candidate who acted as though passion and competence could not coexist [...]

Women’s Delegation Calls for an End to Failed Mideast Peace Formulas

October 29, 2007 – 3:51 pm

ShareDuring the past week, according to an AP report, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has reached out to Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, and others to discuss how to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Meanwhile, a delegation of Palestinian, Israeli, and international women are speaking out in California, New York, and Washington, DC, calling for [...]

Journalists from five Middle Eastern Countries Reach Out to U.S. Colleagues

May 29, 2007 – 3:51 pm

ShareAfter the collapse of the USSR, said May Chidiac with slight exaggeration, the United States is “ruling the whole world.” The award-winning Lebanese TV journalist noted that ordinary people in the U.S. don’t seem interested in what’s going on outside their borders. “Since you decided to rule the whole world,” she challenged her American audience, [...]

On to 2008—Understanding the Women’s Vote

December 8, 2006 – 3:15 pm

ShareFresh from major advances for women in the 2006 mid-term elections, strategists are already looking closely at the decisions made by women voters in order to lay plans for 2008. The gender gap is alive and well, said Ethel Klein at a session in New York City yesterday cosponsored by the Demos network and the [...]