Five Major Key Moments in the Assault on the Rights of Females in the Year 2025.

In the previous year, groups dedicated to gender equality were preparing for a Trump presidency sequel. Scarcely anyone expected. The flood and velocity of presidential directives originating in the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.

The Trump administration has been the primary force, aided by intense advocacy work by deeply conservative factions exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with like-minded governments.

This opposition to progressive rights refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

They pursue this agenda via pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.

We look at five instances that impacted the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls.

USAID Dismantled

In the month of March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat reveals that over eighty percent of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, warning that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference

In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In early May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved 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 commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.