A Quintet of Landmark Occurrences in the Rollback of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.

In the previous year, groups dedicated to gender equality were steeling themselves against a Trump presidency sequel. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders originating in the White House were regarded as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. This strategy had its intended impact – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to address the shortfall left by a major funding freeze. But the situation was about to worsen.

The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to build worldwide connections with ideological partners.

Often termed the anti-gender movement denotes an international coalition of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that aim to roll back advances on numerous fronts. These include pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.

They achieve this through advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.

We look at five instances that affected the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.

USAID Dismantled

In early spring, six weeks after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat reveals that nearly all of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, warning that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a biannual gathering held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In June, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, 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 deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. 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 host nation officials refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored 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 governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.