Five Critical Pivotal Events in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
This time last year, groups dedicated to gender equality were anticipating a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The flood and velocity of executive orders emanating from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. This strategy had its intended impact – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But this was only the precursor.
The US administration has been the key driver, bolstered by vigorous campaigning by deeply conservative factions seizing the opportunity to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.
The movement against gender equality describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle forward movement on multiple topics. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We review five instances that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of the female population.
USAID Dismantled
In early spring, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is suspended, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat reveals that nearly all of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, predicting that mortality will increase. Activists 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. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits 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 poison of patriarchy” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty raises concerns among equality campaigners. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended 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 multilateral bodies. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive 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 exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. 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 the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. More details on the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
