Five Crucial Incidents in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a Trump presidency sequel. Scarcely anyone expected. The torrent and swiftness of executive orders originating in the White House were interpreted as a premeditated approach to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Trump administration has been the main instigator, bolstered by vigorous campaigning by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.
The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle 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 examine five moments that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of the female population.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is frozen, causing widespread distress, a leading figure in the administration announces that a vast majority of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, stating that lives will be lost. Activists say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in war zones. 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 many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they welcome shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as the regional government will not allow usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. 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 encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
