Ms magazine officially debuted on July 1, 1972, featuring Wonder Woman on its cover, but it first appeared as an insert in New York magazine on December 20, 1971. Founders filled Ms with significant stories that sold out within days, marking it as the first US magazine entirely operated by women. The HBO documentary Dear Ms details the magazine's impact on second-wave feminism, showcasing archival footage and interviews, approaching topics like domestic violence and workplace harassment, challenges that made Ms a significant voice in the women's movement.
The first US magazine founded and operated entirely by women was, naysayers be damned, a success. The groundbreaking magazine's history, and its impact on the discourse around second-wave feminism and women's liberation, is detailed in HBO documentary Dear Ms: A Revolution in Print, which premiered at this year's Tribeca film festival.
Packed with archival footage and interviews with original staff, contributors, and other cultural icons, Dear Ms unfolds across three episodes, each directed by a different film-maker.
Before Ms launched, the terms domestic violence and sexual harassment hadn't yet entered the lexicon. Women's legal rights were few, and female journalists were often limited to covering fashion and domesticity.
Feminist organizations like Redstockings, the National Organization for Women, and New York Radical Women were forming; Steinem, by then an established writer, was reporting on the women's liberation movement, of which she was a fundamental part.
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