Five Major Key Moments in the Challenge to the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The flood and velocity of presidential directives coming out of the White House were regarded as a intentional maneuver to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as groups rushed to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.
The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, supported by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups using the moment to build worldwide connections with like-minded governments.
This opposition to progressive rights denotes an international coalition of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that work to dismantle progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They accomplish their goals by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We examine five moments that influenced the protection, honor, and existence of girls and women.
The Dismantling of USAID
In the month of March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat states that nearly all of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, cautioning that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. 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 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 a move to appease a political ally.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among human rights defenders. In May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In June, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from family planning options, 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 calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as the regional government are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise 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 encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.