Five Major Landmark Occurrences in the Challenge to the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a second Trump term. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of White House mandates coming out of the White House were seen as a intentional maneuver to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, complemented by relentless activism by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.
This opposition to progressive rights refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that seek to undermine advances on numerous fronts. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five instances that shaped the protection, honor, and existence of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing global disruption, a senior US official states that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, former presidents and humanitarian and health experts criticize the move, predicting that mortality will increase. Activists say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. 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 conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they welcome new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among rights advocates. In May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners 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 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 dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent countless females 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 imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. 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 include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
