Five Defining Pivotal Events in the Erosion of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a return of Donald Trump to office. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees originating in the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to paralyze through overload. This strategy had its intended impact – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.
The Trump administration has been the main instigator, supported by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.
The movement against gender equality describes a worldwide alliance of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back forward movement on multiple topics. These include abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five moments that affected the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a senior US official reveals that a vast majority of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, warning that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, 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 reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts 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 the region, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
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 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 politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions 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 expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
