Five Defining Crucial Incidents in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.

This time last year, feminist advocacy groups were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of executive orders originating in the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to induce a state of shock. This strategy had its intended impact – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a sudden aid suspension. But this was only the precursor.

The American government has been the central catalyst, bolstered by vigorous campaigning by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with sympathetic regimes.

The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken forward movement on multiple topics. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

They pursue this agenda via advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.

We analyze five episodes that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of the female population.

USAID Dismantled

In March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing international chaos, a senior US official states that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, former presidents and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, warning that people will die as a result. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.

Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference

In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit 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 optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among rights advocates. In May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. 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 cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.