Five Crucial Incidents in the Attack on the Rights of Females in 2025.
In the previous year, groups dedicated to gender equality were steeling themselves against a second Trump term. Hardly anyone anticipated. The flood and velocity of executive orders emanating from the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.
The US administration has been the key driver, aided by vigorous campaigning by deeply conservative factions using the moment to strengthen global ties with ideological partners.
This opposition to progressive rights denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that seek to undermine gains in a variety of areas. This encompasses pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They achieve this through pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We analyze five episodes that shaped the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.
The Dismantling of USAID
In March, shortly after a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration confirms that the lion's share of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, predicting that mortality will increase. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they welcome shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive countless females from access to birth control, 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 “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 be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected 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 encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
