Five Major Key Moments in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.

A year ago, groups dedicated to gender equality were preparing for a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The flood and velocity of White House mandates coming out of the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But this was only the precursor.

The US administration has been the key driver, complemented by relentless activism by far-right organisations using the moment to strengthen global ties with political allies.

The movement against gender equality denotes an international coalition of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.

They achieve this through influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We review five junctures that influenced the protection, honor, and existence of girls and women.

USAID Effectively Dismantled

In early spring, six weeks after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing global disruption, a senior US official announces that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, warning that fatalities will ensue. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations 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 significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting

In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they welcome shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.

Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa

Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In May, a president and first lady open a major forum to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the level of external participation has grown significantly.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as the regional government will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for 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 January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, 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. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach 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 new, wider policy.