Five Critical Key Moments in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
A year ago, groups dedicated to gender equality were steeling themselves against a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders originating in the White House were regarded as a intentional maneuver to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to address the shortfall left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But that was just the beginning.
The US administration has been the central catalyst, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They accomplish their goals by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We review five junctures that shaped the protection, honor, and existence of girls and women.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In early spring, a month and a half following a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat states that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, stating that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC 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 buoyant mood as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. 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 an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls 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 imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. 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 the destruction of viable medicines.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, 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 anticipated when the policy was restored in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
