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

In the previous year, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The flood and velocity of executive orders emanating from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. This strategy had its intended impact – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But the situation was about to worsen.

The US administration has been the key driver, aided by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks capitalizing on the climate to strengthen global ties with political allies.

The movement against gender equality denotes an international coalition of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as billionaire families and individuals that seek to undermine forward movement on multiple topics. Areas targeted involve access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.

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

USAID Effectively Dismantled

In the month of March, shortly after a key American development organization is suspended, causing widespread distress, a leading figure in the administration states that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, cautioning that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.

Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference

In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits as they welcome changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa

Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network 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 politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities will not allow usable products to be destroyed.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated 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 extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health 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 conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.