Five Defining Key Moments in the Assault on the Rights of Females in This Past Year.

In the previous year, groups dedicated to gender equality were preparing for a Trump presidency sequel. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates issued from the White House were seen as a intentional maneuver to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as groups rushed to plug the hole left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But the situation was about to worsen.

The American government has been the key driver, supported by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with ideological partners.

This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken forward movement on multiple topics. These include abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.

They pursue this agenda via advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.

We examine five episodes that affected the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.

USAID Effectively Dismantled

In early spring, shortly after a key American development organization is suspended, causing widespread distress, a senior US official confirms that nearly all of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, predicting that lives will be lost. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.

Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference

In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining historic agreements 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 triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. 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 international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials will not allow usable products to be destroyed.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.