Ms. Magazine’s Top Feminists of 2024

In the second year following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, 2024 emerged as a defining period for feminist resistance and resilience. Ms. Magazine’s annual honors highlight a year where the bravest and most influential figures in the movement refused to be silenced, even as they faced unprecedented legal and political attacks. At the forefront of this list are the twenty-seven plaintiffs in Zurawski v. Texas, women who courageously sued the state to seek clarification on “medical emergency” exceptions within its draconian abortion ban. Their stories, such as Amanda Zurawski nearly dying from sepsis after being denied care and Samantha Casiano being forced to carry a non-viable fetus to term, shocked the nation. Although the Texas Supreme Court ultimately refused to clarify the law, these women’s courage transformed personal trauma into a powerful national catalyst for awareness and action.

The list places elected officials alongside people whose political influence comes from organizing, testimony or cultural work. This range raises a useful question: who becomes recognizable as a feminist actor, and whose labor remains behind a public achievement? An annual selection can open that discussion without becoming a comprehensive map of a movement.

Reproductive autonomy links the Texas plaintiffs with abortion funds and providers. Their different roles show why legal rights depend on practical access: testimony can expose harm, while money, transport and care determine whether someone can obtain treatment. These forms of work should be read together rather than reduced to individual courage.

Political visibility also carries costs. The South Carolina senators’ opposition to an abortion ban did not ensure electoral victory: three Republican members lost their primaries. Their inclusion invites a distinction between holding office, exercising political judgment and receiving an electoral reward. None guarantees the others.

The selection’s U.S. focus is a boundary to keep in view when following its links. Readers can compare whose achievements receive attention, how collective work is credited, and whether recognition shifts resources or merely celebrates visibility. The list offers starting points for those questions rather than evidence that feminist progress follows a single upward path.