Five Critical Significant Developments in the Rollback of the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
In the previous year, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates originating in the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as groups rushed to address the shortfall left by a sudden aid suspension. But the situation was about to worsen.
The US administration has been the primary force, complemented by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with ideological partners.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back advances on numerous fronts. This encompasses access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They do this by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We analyze five instances that shaped the welfare, autonomy, and survival of females globally.
USAID Dismantled
In March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is suspended, causing global disruption, a senior US official reveals that over eighty percent of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, cautioning that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they celebrate new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus 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 sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
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 dispose of millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive 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 dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. 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 rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the rule was reinstated 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. More details on the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.
