Five Critical Landmark Occurrences in the Rollback of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.
In the previous year, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of White House mandates originating in the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this merely marked the opening act.
The American government has been the main instigator, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations using the moment to strengthen global ties with like-minded governments.
The movement against gender equality describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They achieve this through influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We examine five instances that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of females globally.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is halted, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat reveals that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, stating that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held in parallel 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 buoyant mood as they celebrate new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a major forum to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on 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 the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners 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 depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored in January. 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 include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
