Five Major Pivotal Events in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a return of Donald Trump to office. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The flood and velocity of executive orders originating in the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.
The Washington leadership has been the central catalyst, bolstered by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as billionaire families and individuals 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 accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We examine five moments that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, shortly after a key American development organization is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official states that nearly all of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, predicting that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening 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 traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among rights advocates. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In June, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” 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 fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials are blocking the destruction of viable medicines.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. 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 cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.
