Five Defining Pivotal Events in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were seen as a intentional maneuver to cause confusion and fear. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the central catalyst, bolstered by intense advocacy work by deeply conservative factions seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
The movement against gender equality denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that seek to undermine gains in a variety of areas. These include 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 analyze five junctures that shaped the protection, honor, and existence of girls and women.
The Dismantling of USAID
In March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing international chaos, a senior US official states that the lion's share of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, cautioning that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically 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 luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
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 dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny a huge female population 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 deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
