Five Pivotal Events in the Rollback of the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.

In the previous year, groups dedicated to gender equality were preparing for a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But this merely marked the opening act.

The Trump administration has been the main instigator, bolstered by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with sympathetic regimes.

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 forward movement on multiple topics. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They accomplish their goals by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We examine five junctures that affected the protection, honor, and existence of females globally.

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 confirms that the lion's share of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities criticize the move, stating that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization 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 March, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held in parallel with the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits as they celebrate shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among equality campaigners. In May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” 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 fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

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 was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.