A Quintet of Landmark Occurrences in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
This time last year, groups dedicated to gender equality were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of executive orders issued from the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But this was only the precursor.
The American government has been the main instigator, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.
Often termed the anti-gender movement signifies a transnational grouping of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They achieve this through pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We analyze five junctures that influenced the protection, honor, and existence of the female population.
The Dismantling of USAID
In early spring, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat reveals that the lion's share of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a major forum to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In June, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny countless females from contraceptive supplies, 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 “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
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 anticipated when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. 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 sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
