Five Defining Key Moments in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The torrent and swiftness of presidential directives issued from the White House were regarded as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.
The American government has been the central catalyst, supported by intense advocacy work by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.
The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. These include pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They pursue this agenda via pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We review five moments that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration states that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, former presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, stating that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries proceed with parallel slashes. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held in parallel with 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 applaud changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In 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 regional summit on family values 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 stand up to “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as local authorities are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, 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 expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
