Five Major Pivotal Events in the Challenge to the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
This time last year, groups dedicated to gender equality were anticipating a Trump presidency sequel. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The torrent and swiftness of presidential directives coming out of the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The American government has been the central catalyst, bolstered by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to build worldwide connections with political allies.
Often termed the anti-gender movement refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as billionaire families and individuals that aim to roll back progress across a wide spectrum of issues. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They pursue this agenda via lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five moments that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
The Dismantling of USAID
In March, six weeks after a key American development organization is suspended, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official states that a vast majority of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and humanitarian and health experts decry the decision, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Activists 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. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates 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 initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are actively undermining historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny countless females from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
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 was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
