Five Major Significant Developments in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
In the previous year, groups dedicated to gender equality were preparing for a second Trump term. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives emanating from the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to cause confusion and fear. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.
The Washington leadership has been the central catalyst, bolstered by relentless activism by ultra-conservative groups using the moment to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.
Often termed the anti-gender movement refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back progress across a wide spectrum of issues. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We examine five junctures that shaped the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In March, shortly after a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official announces that the lion's share of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, stating that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries 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.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue 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 defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is back, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In June, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control 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 deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group 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 host nation officials will not allow usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. More details on the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
