Five Major Key Moments in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.

A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of administrative decrees originating in the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But that was just the beginning.

The Washington leadership has been the primary force, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups capitalizing on the climate to solidify transnational relationships with like-minded governments.

The movement against gender equality denotes an international coalition of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken forward movement on multiple topics. Areas targeted involve abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.

They pursue this agenda via advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.

We analyze five moments that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.

The Dismantling of USAID

In the month of March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is frozen, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration confirms that nearly all of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, warning that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization 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 upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are actively undermining historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a major forum to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization 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 in deadlock as host nation officials are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. 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. Further specifics about 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 discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.