A Quintet of Landmark Occurrences in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in the Past Year.

In the previous year, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of executive orders coming out of the White House were interpreted as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But the situation was about to worsen.

The US administration has been the central catalyst, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.

Often termed the anti-gender movement describes a worldwide alliance of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that aim to roll back advances on numerous fronts. This encompasses access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

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

We examine five moments that affected the protection, honor, and existence of girls and women.

USAID Dismantled

In the month of March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration reveals that nearly all of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, warning that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A head of a worldwide campaign network 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 faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held in parallel with the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.

Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa

Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among rights advocates. In May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church 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 extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials are blocking usable products to be destroyed.

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 typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.