Five Critical Key Moments in the Challenge to the Rights of Females in This Past Year.

This time last year, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders issued from the White House were interpreted as a intentional maneuver to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But this merely marked the opening act.

The Trump administration has been the central catalyst, complemented by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups exploiting the situation to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.

The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They accomplish their goals by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We review five junctures that affected the protection, honor, and existence of the female population.

The Demise of a Major Aid Agency

In early spring, six weeks after a major US aid agency is halted, causing global disruption, a senior US official confirms that a vast majority of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, past leaders and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in war zones. 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 a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries proceed with parallel slashes. 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 the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held in parallel 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 high spirits as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are actively undermining established norms 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 centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent countless females from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support 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 policy was restored 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 expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.