Five Crucial Incidents in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
A year ago, women’s rights organisations were preparing for a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders coming out of the White House were interpreted as a premeditated approach to cause confusion and fear. In many ways it worked – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.
The Washington leadership has been the primary force, aided by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with like-minded governments.
Often termed the anti-gender movement denotes an international coalition of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that seek to undermine gains in a variety of areas. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They accomplish their goals by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We look at five moments that influenced the security, respect, and well-being of females globally.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, six weeks after a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat states that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, stating that mortality will increase. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate shifts in US 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 poison of patriarchy” is back, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding established norms on core aspects of gender equality 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 equality campaigners. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In June, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has grown significantly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny countless females from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. 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 the regional government refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.
