Five Critical Pivotal Events in the Rollback of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.
In the previous year, groups dedicated to gender equality were preparing for a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders originating in the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But that was just the beginning.
The Washington leadership has been the central catalyst, aided by relentless activism by ultra-conservative groups using the moment to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.
The movement against gender equality denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that strive to weaken forward movement on multiple topics. Areas targeted involve pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They achieve this through lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We examine five episodes that affected the protection, honor, and existence of the female population.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration states that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and humanitarian and health experts criticize the move, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization 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 March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held in parallel with the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In June, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive 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 forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed 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 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 anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
