A Quintet of Key Moments in the Rollback of the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a return of Donald Trump to office. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders originating in the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as groups rushed to address the shortfall left by a major funding freeze. But the situation was about to worsen.
The US administration has been the key driver, supported by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks capitalizing on the climate to solidify transnational relationships with political allies.
The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken gains in a variety of areas. These include abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They accomplish their goals by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We look at five moments that impacted the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is frozen, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration announces that the lion's share of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and humanitarian and health experts denounce the action, stating that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent countless females from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.
