Five Major Significant Developments in the Challenge to the Rights of Females in the Year 2025.
This time last year, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a return of Donald Trump to office. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of administrative decrees originating in the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to address the shortfall left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.
The Trump administration has been the key driver, supported by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with political allies.
The movement against gender equality denotes an international coalition of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They pursue this agenda via influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We analyze five moments that affected the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, shortly after a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration confirms that the lion's share of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, former presidents and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, predicting that lives will be lost. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say the impact on girls and women will be severe by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. 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 high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In June, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to dispose of millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. 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 commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, 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 expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.
