Five Defining Crucial Incidents in the Erosion of the Rights of Females in 2025.
This time last year, feminist advocacy groups were anticipating a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of presidential directives emanating from the White House were viewed as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. This strategy had its intended impact – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The American government has been the key driver, aided by relentless activism by far-right organisations capitalizing on the climate to strengthen global ties with ideological partners.
The movement against gender equality describes a worldwide alliance of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back advances on numerous fronts. This covers 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 promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We analyze five instances that affected the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is halted, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration announces that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts denounce the action, cautioning that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, data shows how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A head of a worldwide campaign network 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 high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In early May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In June, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, 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 elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. 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 rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
