A Quintet of Crucial Incidents in the Rollback of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees originating in the White House were interpreted as a intentional maneuver to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The US administration has been the key driver, complemented by vigorous campaigning by deeply conservative factions exploiting the situation to build worldwide connections with political allies.
The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as affluent financiers and clans that strive to weaken forward movement on multiple topics. This encompasses pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They do this by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We look at five junctures that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat reveals that over eighty percent of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities criticize the move, predicting that lives will be lost. Activists say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In early May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, 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 warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their elimination will deprive countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed 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 extend the restrictions to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
