Five Defining Pivotal Events in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
In the previous year, groups dedicated to gender equality were steeling themselves against a Trump presidency sequel. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of White House mandates originating in the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to induce a state of shock. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.
The American government has been the primary force, complemented by relentless activism by ultra-conservative groups capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with political allies.
This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that seek to undermine gains in a variety of areas. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They accomplish their goals by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We review five instances that affected the welfare, autonomy, and survival of the female population.
The Dismantling of USAID
In the month of March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official announces that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, warning that lives will be lost. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. 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 millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held in parallel with 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 high spirits as they celebrate shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
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 significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
