Good morning, Broadsheet readers! ‘Ellen’ airs its last episode, Cathie Wood’s tech bets are risky, and Anita Hill provides some perspective on the stories dominating the news cycle. The Broadsheet will be off on Monday for Memorial Day in the U.S.—we’ll see you back here on Tuesday.
– Common thread. When Anita Hill sat down onstage at a Fortune Most Powerful Women dinner Wednesday night, there were two topics on the audience’s mind: the tragic elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas and the expected overturn of Roe v. Wade.
“Are the two events connected?” asked Fortune executive editor Kristen Bellstrom, who interviewed Hill. The response: “They absolutely are.”
The law professor, Believing author, Hollywood Commission chair, and leading voice on sexual harassment prevention sees threads between the two stories dominating the news cycle. “We need to understand the role that anti-woman thinking has had in school violence, mass murders, and other kinds of violent behavior,” she said. “I don’t think they can be disconnected.”
The Texas massacre is just the most recent example of that interplay. Salvador Ramos first shot his grandmother, then sent messages to a teen girl he met online about his plans to shoot children at a nearby school, before killing 19 students and two teachers. “The general level of misogyny that is in our society today … is manifested in smaller ways as well as the most egregious ways on the occasion of these mass murders,” Hill said.
While Hill’s perspective on such heavy topics can be grounding in moments of crisis, she also discussed more uplifting news: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. Once Jackson takes up her seat on the bench, the court’s three liberal female justices—Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor—will be the ones writing most of the court’s dissents, Hill pointed out.
“As bad as the current news is,” she said, “we have to all remember that out of dark times when the Supreme Court makes colossal decisions, there have always been very powerful dissents that inform the law in the future.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Team sport. Female athletes are using their star power to negotiate better financial terms for themselves, their teams, and their leagues. Players like soccer star Alex Morgan are seeking control of the use of their images for merchandising, while continuing the fight for better employment conditions. Wall Street Journal
- Tragedy continues. Fourth-grade teachers Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles taught alongside each other for years in the same classroom. Both were killed in the Tuesday shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Friends and family members say Garcia should be remembered as someone who "sacrificed her life and put her life on the line for her kids," offering similar sentiments about Mireles. Tragedy struck Garcia's family again yesterday when her husband, Joe Garcia, died of a heart attack amid the stress and grief of his wife's death. The couple leaves behind four children.
- Ups and downs. Fortune alum Jen Wieczner chronicles the rise and fall of ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood, who is known for her bets on risky tech stocks. Her flagship fund has lost half its value in the middle of a bear market. And Wood has gone from "the investor to beat to the one to bet against," Jen writes. New York Magazine
- Family disagreement. European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde is a crypto skeptic. But her own son invested in crypto, she said during a recent interview—and he won't tell her how much he lost in the downturn. "He’s a free man," she says. "If you want to invest there, it’s your choice." Fortune
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Weight care company Found hired Beta Bionics' Serafina Raskin as general counsel. ICG hired Barclays' Elsa Palanza as managing director and global head of sustainability and ESG.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Close call. Rep. Henry Cuellar's lead over progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros is fewer than 200 votes three days after their Democratic primary. The race was closely watched amid the likely overturn of Roe v. Wade because Cuellar is one of few anti-abortion Democrats in Congress. Moving forward, the South Texas district is expected to be competitive. Politico
- Holiday schedule. The U.K. is getting ready for the Platinum Jubilee, its celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's 70 years on the British throne. With a three-day bank holiday scheduled starting June 2, brands are producing special products, ranging from a Union Jack refrigerator to Jubilee-themed potato chips. Wall Street Journal
- Abortion stories. This piece offers a good reminder: "Men have a lot to lose when Roe falls." Yet their voices are often missing in the reproductive rights narrative "even though they are responsible for the overwhelming majority of the world’s unplanned pregnancies, and so often benefit when an abortion occurs." New York Times
ON MY RADAR
Where does the abortion thriller go from here? Vulture
TaskRabbit CEO permanently ditches the office Washington Post
The difference between Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais Vanity Fair
Sky Ferreira has a lot more to say Vulture
PARTING WORDS
"I am going to try to take her advice, which is, 'Don’t do anything for a year.'"
-Ellen DeGeneres on the guidance she received from Oprah Winfrey ahead of ending her daytime talk show after a 19-year run. The final episode of Ellen aired yesterday.
