A Quintet of Key Moments in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.

Twelve months prior, groups dedicated to gender equality were anticipating a return of Donald Trump to office. Scarcely anyone expected. The torrent and swiftness of presidential directives originating in the White House were interpreted as a intentional maneuver to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as groups rushed to address the shortfall left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.

The US administration has been the primary force, complemented by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with ideological partners.

The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

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

We analyze five instances that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of females globally.

The Dismantling of USAID

In the month of March, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing international chaos, a senior US official confirms that the lion's share of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities criticize the move, warning that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among equality campaigners. In May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support 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 policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.