A Quintet of Pivotal Events in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.

A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a return of Donald Trump to office. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates emanating from the White House were viewed as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. In many ways it worked – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a sudden aid suspension. But that was just the beginning.

The Trump administration has been the main instigator, complemented by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.

Often termed the anti-gender movement denotes an international coalition of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken forward movement on multiple topics. Areas targeted involve abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.

They accomplish their goals by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.

We review five instances that influenced the protection, honor, and existence of girls and women.

The Dismantling of USAID

In March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is suspended, causing widespread distress, a senior US official confirms that nearly all of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, cautioning that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, reports confirm how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa

Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among equality campaigners. In May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As health facilities across 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 European depot. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials are blocking usable products to be destroyed.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed 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 national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.