Have you heard the good news? Christina Koch just became the first woman to travel around the moon, Dawn Staley is now the highest-paid coach in women's college basketball at over $4 million a year, and an attorney in Syracuse turned a censored airport ad into two walls calling out sexual harassment.
Let's dive into the historic wins and stories to celebrate this past week:
Christina Koch Makes History Around the Moon: Astronaut Christina Koch became the first woman ever to travel around the moon as part of NASA's Artemis II mission, joining three other crew members in traveling farther from Earth than any human beings in history. Koch, 47, already holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman (328 days), and her words said it all: "Ultimately, we will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other." This is what feminine leadership looks like even 40,000 miles from home.
Dawn Staley's Pay Fight in Women's Basketball: South Carolina coach Dawn Staley is now the highest-paid coach in women's college basketball at over $4 million a year. After negotiating her own contract in 2021 — refusing to accept less than her male counterpart — she didn't just win for herself; she set a benchmark that has since raised salaries for women's basketball coaches across the country by an average of 45%. She's heard directly from coaches and professionals in other fields who credit her fight with giving them the courage to demand more.
Megan Thomas's Censored Ad: Sexual harassment attorney Megan Thomas tried to place a simple ad in the Syracuse airport that read "When HR called it harmless flirting, we called it Exhibit A" — and the airport refused, calling it "threatening and intimidating to men." Thomas sued and won. A judge called the airport's reasoning "nonsense". She then took her tiny rejected ad and turned it into two full walls of the airport — because that's what happens when you try to silence a woman who knows the law.
Climate Plaintiffs Head to Federal Court: Young people from across the country are heading to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Portland on April 13 in Lighthizer v. Trump, challenging the Trump administration's pro-fossil fuel executive orders that block renewable energy, suppress climate science, and accelerate the climate crisis. A lower court dismissed their case, but these youth plaintiffs refused to stop — because the judicial branch exists to check executive overreach, and they're asking it to do its job.
Israeli and Palestinian Mothers March Barefoot Together in Rome for Peace: Hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian mothers marched barefoot through Rome in the "Barefoot Walk: Mothers' Call for Peace," a powerful demonstration demanding an end to violence and greater protection for children on all sides of the conflict. The march was an embodied act of solidarity — bare feet on stone, mothers united by grief and love across political lines that have kept their communities at war.
First Major Insurer to Cover Doula Services: UnitedHealthcare has launched its Doula Support program, making it the first major insurer to offer doula coverage through eligible employer-sponsored health plans — with a phased rollout reaching approximately 7.2 million members by January 2027. Members can access doula care at any stage of pregnancy through postpartum, either virtually or in-person, through a set number of visits or a reimbursement allowance. Research links doula support to a 57% reduction in postpartum anxiety and depression, and lower rates of preterm birth.
Drug-Free Treatment for Postpartum Depression Is Being Tested: The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has enrolled its first patient in a $11.6 million Department of Defense-funded clinical trial testing SAINT®, an FDA-cleared, non-invasive brain stimulation therapy, as a rapid treatment for postpartum depression. Unlike antidepressants or therapy — which can take weeks to work — SAINT® uses targeted magnetic pulses over just five days, with ten 10-minute sessions per day, and doesn't require participants to have already failed other treatments. With nearly 2 in 3 maternal deaths occurring in the postpartum period and current treatments too slow for many women, this research could be genuinely life-changing.
