Five Pivotal Events in the Challenge to the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.

This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of presidential directives coming out of the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But this was only the precursor.

The US administration has been the main instigator, supported by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with political allies.

Often termed the anti-gender movement denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.

They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We analyze five instances that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.

USAID Dismantled

In early spring, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat states that the lion's share of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, predicting that lives will be lost. Activists say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, 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 shrinking assistance, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.

Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting

In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa

Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among rights advocates. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

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 destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent countless females from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities are blocking the destruction of viable medicines.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.