Five Crucial Incidents in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in the Year 2025.

In the previous year, groups dedicated to gender equality were anticipating a Trump presidency sequel. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees issued from the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to induce a state of shock. This strategy had its intended impact – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to address the shortfall left by a sudden aid suspension. But the situation was about to worsen.

The US administration has been the central catalyst, aided by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations using the moment to strengthen global ties with political allies.

The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

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

We analyze five instances that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.

USAID Effectively Dismantled

In March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is suspended, causing international chaos, a senior US official announces that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, warning that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit 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 changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is back, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July 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 a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, 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 “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. 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 cover diversity programmes. More details on the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.