Five Major Pivotal Events in the Challenge to the Freedoms of Women and Girls in 2025.
This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a second Trump term. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were seen as a intentional maneuver to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as networks struggled to plug the hole left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.
The US administration has been the primary force, complemented by relentless activism by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with like-minded governments.
Often termed the anti-gender movement signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. This encompasses pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We examine five instances that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.
USAID Dismantled
In the month of March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat confirms that nearly all of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, past leaders and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, predicting that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, 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. Additional key contributing countries proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held alongside 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 welcome shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the level of external participation has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny countless females from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the policy was restored in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, 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. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
