A Quintet of Significant Developments in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
In the previous year, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a return of Donald Trump to office. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders coming out of the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to compensate for the loss left by a sudden aid suspension. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions capitalizing on the climate to strengthen global ties with like-minded governments.
The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle gains in a variety of areas. Areas targeted involve access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five moments that shaped the welfare, autonomy, and survival of females globally.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is suspended, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official announces that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities criticize the move, warning that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. 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. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
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 in parallel 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 buoyant mood as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from access to birth control, 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 deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated 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 national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. More details on the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
