Five Defining Key Moments in the Challenge to the Rights of Females in 2025.

A year ago, groups dedicated to gender equality were anticipating a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of administrative decrees issued from the White House were interpreted as a premeditated approach to induce a state of shock. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But this merely marked the opening act.

The American government has been the main instigator, supported by vigorous campaigning by deeply conservative factions using the moment to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.

The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that seek to undermine forward movement on multiple topics. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They achieve this through lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We analyze five junctures that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of females globally.

USAID Dismantled

In the month of March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is halted, causing global disruption, a senior US official states that the lion's share of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held concurrently with 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 social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.

Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa

Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among human rights defenders. In May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for 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 expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.