Happy Friday! Welcome to our Media Round Up. Each week, we’re collecting and sharing gender + politics stories. Here’s what caught our eye this week: 

This federal program that helps 2 in 5 babies may have to turn away families if Congress doesn’t act 

Tami Luhby, CNN 

If Congress does not increase funding, WIC, formally known as the “Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children” may soon have to start putting eligible families on waitlists. Enrollment in the program has increased exponentially in recent months, climbing to just under 7 million people in August. Although the program has received bipartisan support for many years, a battle was already brewing on Capitol Hill prior to the jump over the program’s appropriation for fiscal year 2024. The uptick in enrollment prompted the Biden administration to request an additional $1.4 billion to meet the increased demand in August. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, if the program doesn’t receive more money, 600,000 eligible new moms and young children could be turned away.  

Read the full story here. 

Mexico will soon elect its first female president – but that landmark masks an uneven march toward women’s rights 

Beth Daley, The Conversation 

In 2024, Mexico will elect it’s first female president. In September, the country’s leading parties each nominated a woman as its candidate: the Morena party named former Mexico City Mayor Caludia Sheinbaum and the National Action Party announced announced Xóchitl Gálvez. As the country gears up for its glass ceiling shattering election, scholars wonder if the country is moving any closer to making changes that would give women real equality. For example, even with women representing half of Congress, and women occupying top posts in both chambers of Congress, “ … electing women to high office doesn’t necessarily shift power in meaningful ways.” Experts call this phenomena “descriptive representation” – when political leaders resemble a group of voters but fail to set policies designed to protect them.  

Read the full story here. 

Women Are More Skeptical About the Future of Social Security Than Men, Study Finds 

Gabrielle Olya, Yahoo Finance 

With increased uncertainty about the future of the Social Security program, many Americans are orried about how this will impact their retirement plans, and recent findings show how women are more concerned than men. In a new study by Northwestern Mutual, while more than 6 in 10 men in America believe Social Security will be there when they need it, less than half (48%) of women agree. According to Alison Fhyrie, a financial advisor at Northwestern Mutual, reasons why women are more skeptical about the future of Social Security than men include: women have long been excluded from financial and wealth-building tools and history of the financial challenges women have faced – including the Great Recession of 2008 and substantial amounts of student loan debt.  

Read the full story here.  

OnPolitics: Jill Biden leads effort to study menopause, women’s health issues 

Marina Pitofsky, USA Today 

Longtime educator, First Lady Jill Biden is teaching a lesson about women’s health. Women have struggled with medical care for health issues ranging from menopause, heart attacks and more. Maureen Groppe reports that Jill Biden is giving the Biden administration 45 days to am up the efforts to change that. Officials state that they’re trying to correct the fact that women have been understudied and underrepresented in health research, despite making up more than half the population. The first lady told reporters on Monday, “If you ask any woman in America about her health care, she probably has a story to tell. You know her. She’s a woman who gets debilitating migraines but doesn’t know why and can’t find treatment options that work for her.” 

Read the full story here. 

Is 2024 the year of the Instagram moms? 

Amanda Becker, The 19th* 

Motherhood for Good is a left-leaning group that focuses on the intersection of parenthood and politics. They use their Instagram account, run by Kate Duffy, for grassroots efforts rather than waiting on campaigns to come to them. The group’s messaging and memberships reflect the increasingly diverse areas in which they live, work, and parent. The group’s motivations include gun violence in schools, reproductive rights and protecting LGBTQ+ kids.  

Read the full story here.