Five Defining Crucial Incidents in the Rollback of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.
Twelve months prior, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of presidential directives issued from the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The American government has been the main instigator, aided by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups using the moment to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
The movement against gender equality describes a worldwide alliance of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as affluent financiers and clans that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This encompasses abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They achieve this through advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We look at five episodes that impacted the security, respect, and well-being of the female population.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is suspended, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat announces that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts decry the decision, warning that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held concurrently with 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 social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
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 midsummer plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, 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 likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
