Five Major Crucial Incidents in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.

A year ago, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a return of Donald Trump to office. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of presidential directives emanating from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as groups rushed to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But this was only the precursor.

The Trump administration has been the primary force, complemented by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups exploiting the situation to strengthen global ties with ideological partners.

The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back forward movement on multiple topics. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.

They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.

We examine five junctures that impacted the protection, honor, and existence of females globally.

The Dismantling of USAID

In early spring, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing widespread distress, a senior US official reveals that the lion's share of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, former presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, stating that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates 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. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting

In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among rights advocates. In May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In June, a prominent church 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 increased markedly.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa 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 a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.