Five Defining Landmark Occurrences in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
A year ago, groups dedicated to gender equality were steeling themselves against a Trump presidency sequel. Few were prepared for. The torrent and swiftness of White House mandates coming out of the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But this merely marked the opening act.
The American government has been the key driver, aided by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity to solidify transnational relationships with political allies.
This opposition to progressive rights denotes an international coalition of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. This encompasses pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They pursue this agenda via lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We examine five moments that affected the safety, dignity and lives of the female population.
The Dismantling of USAID
In the month of March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration reveals that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts denounce the action, stating that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. 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 many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit 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 high spirits as they celebrate shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert 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.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, 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 calls on African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In June, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. 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 host nation officials will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
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 was anticipated when the ban was reimposed 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 expand the global gag rule to include sovereign states and UN agencies 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 leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.