Five Defining Pivotal Events in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.

This time last year, women’s rights organisations were steeling themselves against a return of Donald Trump to office. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The volume and speed of executive orders originating in the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to induce a state of shock. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to address the shortfall left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.

The Trump administration has been the central catalyst, aided by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.

The movement against gender equality denotes an international coalition of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that seek to undermine forward movement on multiple topics. This encompasses access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

They accomplish their goals by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.

We analyze five episodes that affected the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls.

USAID Dismantled

In early spring, shortly after a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration states that the lion's share of the body's projects will be terminated. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, cautioning that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network 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 faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population 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 international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, 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 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 expand the global gag rule to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.