Five Major Significant Developments in the Challenge to the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
A year ago, groups dedicated to gender equality were anticipating a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives originating in the White House were regarded as a premeditated approach to cause confusion and fear. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to address the shortfall left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Trump administration has been the primary force, complemented by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with like-minded governments.
The movement against gender equality describes a worldwide alliance of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that aim to roll back forward movement on multiple topics. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five moments that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing international chaos, a senior US official states that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts decry the decision, cautioning that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms 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, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries initiate similar reductions. 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 conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In early May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent 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 politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. More details on the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
