Five Major Significant Developments in the Attack on the Rights of Females in 2025.
In the previous year, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a return of Donald Trump to office. Few were prepared for. The flood and velocity of executive orders coming out of the White House were regarded as a intentional maneuver to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to address the shortfall left by a freeze on international development funds. But this was only the precursor.
The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with like-minded governments.
The movement against gender equality denotes an international coalition of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This encompasses reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We review five moments that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of females globally.
USAID Dismantled
In the month of March, shortly after a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat announces that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, cautioning that mortality will increase. Activists say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries proceed with parallel slashes. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women 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 rights advocates. In May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, 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 came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. More details on the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
