Five Critical Significant Developments in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
A year ago, groups dedicated to gender equality were anticipating a return of Donald Trump to office. Hardly anyone anticipated. The flood and velocity of executive orders issued from the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. This strategy had its intended impact – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Washington leadership has been the primary force, supported by relentless activism by deeply conservative factions exploiting the situation to strengthen global ties with political allies.
Often termed the anti-gender movement denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that work to dismantle progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We examine five instances that affected the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a senior US official confirms that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, cautioning that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held concurrently 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 buoyant mood as they welcome shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials are blocking the destruction of viable medicines.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. More details on the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
