Five Defining Key Moments in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
This time last year, groups dedicated to gender equality were bracing themselves for a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of White House mandates issued from the White House were interpreted as a intentional maneuver to cause confusion and fear. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion 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 main instigator, aided by relentless activism by ultra-conservative groups capitalizing on the climate to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
Often termed the anti-gender movement denotes an international coalition of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back gains in a variety of areas. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They pursue this agenda via pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five episodes that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of the female population.
USAID Dismantled
In March, shortly after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration states that the lion's share of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, predicting that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are actively undermining historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among rights advocates. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In June, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
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 destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls 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 imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the policy was restored in January. 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 national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.
