Five Major Pivotal Events in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
In the previous year, feminist advocacy groups were bracing themselves for a return of Donald Trump to office. Hardly anyone anticipated. The flood and velocity of White House mandates originating in the White House were viewed as a intentional maneuver to paralyze through overload. This strategy had its intended impact – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.
The Trump administration has been the primary force, complemented by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions using the moment to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
Often termed the anti-gender movement signifies a transnational grouping of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They accomplish their goals by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five episodes that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of females globally.
The Dismantling of USAID
In early spring, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is halted, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat reveals that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, former presidents and humanitarian and health experts decry the decision, stating that mortality will increase. Activists say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In early May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference 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 stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to 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 the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. 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 anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope 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.
