The Feminist Majority is a feminist advocacy organization that advocates on abortion access and other left-of-center issues including racial activism, LGBT interests, immigrant rights, expanded health-care and child-care benefits, and environmentalism. Affiliated organizations include the Feminist Majority Foundation, Feminist Campus, and Ms. Magazine. ¹

Background

The Feminist Majority is a feminist advocacy organization that works to promote sex and gender equality, abortion access, and left-of-center social policy issues including LGBT interests, expanded immigration, gun control, and environmental protection. ² It engages in public education, legislative lobbying, political organizing and endorsements, and other direct political actions to impact legislation. ³ All of its 2024 political endorsements were for Democrats, including then-Vice President Kamala Harris for president. ⁴

Its political action committee works to elect feminist candidates for federal office through endorsements, contributions, and networking. It describes its activities as assisting “progressive candidates with contributions and networking opportunities.” ⁵

Campaigns and Positions

Feminist Majority supports the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would explicitly ban discrimination based on sex, as part of the United States Constitution. It claims that passage of the ERA would help to restore federally protected abortion access. It also argues that sex-based discrimination also includes gender-based discrimination, expanding ERA’s protections to transgender, nonbinary, and queer people. ⁶

Feminist Majority opposes all state abortion bans, bills that identify pre-abortion requirements such as ultrasounds and counseling, and President Donald Trump’s executive order that reinstated the Mexico City Policy that prohibits funding to organizations that provide abortion services. ⁷

In March 2023, the Feminist Majority Foundation signed a letter spearheaded by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights rejecting the Protection of Women and Girls in Sport Act of 2023 that would exclude natal males from women’s athletic programs in schools, calling for the “full inclusion, protection, and celebration of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex youth, including access to extracurricular activities such as athletics.” Other signers included the ACLU, the Center for American Progress, the ERA Coalition, the Human Rights Campaign, the NAACP, the National Center for Transgender Equality, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Transgender Law Center, and the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). ⁸

In January 2025, Feminist Majority executive director Katherine Spillar published an article in Ms. Magazine in response to the election of President Donald Trump describing the Feminist Majority movement as “prepared and defiant,” claiming that “authoritarianism is once again fashionable.” It is anticipating a “flood of misogyny” with the new administration, describing it as a “war on women.” ⁹

In February 2025, Feminist Majority joined a new campaign, Disrupt NOW, partnering with the National Organization for Women, the Transformative Justice Coalition, One Fair Wage, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, and the ERA Coalition to “combat extreme misogynist propaganda.” The campaign supports several left-of-center issues including abortion access, paid childcare leave, protecting federal workers’ jobs, and eliminating illegal immigrant deportations and detention. ^{10 11}

Affiliated Organizations

The Feminist Majority Foundation is Feminist Majority’s charitable arm that focuses on research, education, and advocacy on left-of-center issues consistent with the Feminist Majority. In 2023, it reported over $7.4 million in revenue. ¹²

Feminist Campus is a national network of college-student-run groups formed in 1997 to support abortion access and left-of-center issues through campus campaigns, education, and political organizing. ¹³

Ms. Magazine is a feminist magazine launched in 1971. It was originally a nonprofit magazine published by the Ms. Foundation for Women; it was later taken over Liberty Media for Women. In 2001 the Feminist Majority Foundation purchased Liberty Media for Women and took over the publication of Ms. Magazine. ¹⁴

Leadership

Katherine Spillar is a co-founder and the executive director of Feminist Majority and Feminist Majority Foundation since 1987. She has been the executive editor of Ms. Magazine since 2006. Previously, she was president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women. ¹⁵ The day after President Donald Trump’s first inauguration, Spillar orchestrated protest marches around the country, and one year later she organized the Women’s March in Los Angeles. ¹⁶

Eleanor Smeal is a co-founder and as of 2025 was working as the president of Feminist Majority and the Feminist Majority Foundation. She is a former president of the National Organization for Women and led the attempt to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution. In 1986, she led the first national abortion rights demonstration in Washington, D.C. She is on the boards of several feminist organizations including the National Council for Research on Women, the National Organization for Women, and the National Council of Women’s Organizations. ^{17 18}

Peg Yorkin was a co-founder and the board chair of Feminist Majority and the Feminist Majority Foundation until her death in June 2023. She started her career as a theater producer in Los Angeles. In 1986, she produced the National Organization for Women’s 20^th anniversary event. In 1987, she co-founded Feminist Majority and the Feminist Majority Foundation and became the board chair for both groups. In 1991, she donated $10 million to the Feminist Majority Foundation to support the foundation and to fund the campaign to bring the abortifacient drug mifepristone to the United States. In 2001, she donated $5 million for the operations of Ms. Magazine as it became a sister organization to Feminist Majority. ^{19 20}

District Court Judge Ana Reyes was a board member of Feminist Majority who contributes to Democratic causes and candidates and has actively represented illegal immigrants as an attorney. She was also involved in Democratic-aligned super PAC Defeat by Tweet which raised funds for liberal initiatives each time President Donald Trump posted to Twitter. In March 2025, Reyes ruled to block President Donald Trump’s executive order barring transgender people from military service. ^{21 22 23}

1. “Our Work.” Feminist Majority. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://feministmajority.org/our-work/
2. “About.” Feminist Majority. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://feministmajority.org/about/
3. Feminist Majority. Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. (Form 990 – Part III). 2023.
4. “2024.” Feminist Majority – Elections. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://feministmajority.org/endorsements/2024/
5. “Our Work.” Feminist Majority Political Action Committee.” Accessed April 3, 2025. https://feministmajoritypac.org/our-work/
6. “Equal Rights Amendment.” Feminist Majority. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://feministmajority.org/our-work/equal-rights-amendment/
7. “Reproductive Rights.” Feminist Majority. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://feministmajority.org/our-work/reproductive-rights/
8. “Oppose H.R. 734 to Protect Civil Rights.” The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. March 27, 2023. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://civilrights.org/resource/oppose-h-r-734-to-protect-civil-rights/
9. Kathy Spillar. “Prepared and Defiant: Ms. Magazine’s Vision for the Feminist Fights Ahead.” Ms. Magazine. January 6, 2025. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://msmagazine.com/2025/01/06/feminist-trump-ms-magazine-women/
10. “Feminist Majority Joins NOW to Announce New Campaign, Disrupt NOW.” Feminist Majority. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://feministmajority.org/press/feminist-majority-joins-now-to-announce-new-campaign-disrupt-now/
11. “Disrupt NOW Campaign: NOW’s Resistance Movement Against the Misogynist Agenda.” National Organization for Women. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://now.org/disrupt-now-2/
12. Feminist Majority Foundation. Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. (Form 990 – Part I). 2023.
13. “About.” Feminist Campus. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://feministcampus.org/about/
14. “About Ms.” Ms. Magazine. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://msmagazine.com/about/
15. LinkedIn – Kathy Spillar. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-spillar-aba0089/
16.  Lisa Martin. “Katherine Spillar Fights for Feminism.” TCU Magazine. Spring 2018. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://magazine.tcu.edu/spring-2018/katherine-spillar-fights-for-feminism/
17. “Eleanor Smeal.” Feminist Majority. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://feministmajority.org/about/eleanor-smeal/
18. Jennifer Bardi. “Humanist Women in History: Eleanor Smeal.” The Humanist. March 26, 2018. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://thehumanist.com/features/profiles/humanist-women-history-eleanor-smeal
19. “Peg Yorkin.” Feminist Majority. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://feministmajority.org/about/peg-yorkin/
20. “Rest in Power: Peg Yorkin, Feminist Trailblazer and Supporter of Women in Politics.” Ms. Magazine. June 26, 2023. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://msmagazine.com/2023/06/26/peg-yorkin/
21. X – Natalie Winters. Posted March 19, 2025. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://x.com/nataliegwinters/status/1902377286734631129?s=46
22. “Ana C. Reyes: A Judge with a Legacy of Activism and Judicial Influence.” Devdiscourse. March 20, 2025. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/international/3314267-ana-c-reyes-a-judge-with-a-legacy-of-activism-and-judicial-influence
23. United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Reyes%20SJQ%20Public%20Final%20for%20OneDrive.pdf