Five Major Significant Developments in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
Twelve months prior, feminist advocacy groups were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of presidential directives emanating from the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. The tactic proved effective – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But this was only the precursor.
The Trump administration has been the primary force, supported by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to solidify transnational relationships with sympathetic regimes.
Often termed the anti-gender movement signifies a transnational grouping of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken gains in a variety of areas. This encompasses reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They pursue this agenda via pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We review five junctures that shaped the protection, honor, and existence of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat states that nearly all of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, former presidents and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, warning that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they applaud shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among rights advocates. In early May, a president and first lady open a major forum to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government will not allow usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.
