Five Significant Developments in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.

This time last year, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates issued from the White House were regarded as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as networks struggled to plug the hole left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.

The American government has been the central catalyst, aided by intense advocacy work by ultra-conservative groups exploiting the situation to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.

The movement against gender equality describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that aim to roll back progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This encompasses access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

They achieve this through advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We review five junctures that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of females globally.

The Demise of a Major Aid Agency

In early spring, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official announces that over eighty percent of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, warning that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among human rights defenders. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials will not allow usable products to be destroyed.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.