Five Major Significant Developments in the Rollback of the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
In the previous year, feminist advocacy groups were steeling themselves against a Trump presidency sequel. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives issued from the White House were viewed as a intentional maneuver to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to address the shortfall left by a sudden aid suspension. But this was only the precursor.
The American government has been the main instigator, supported by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to build worldwide connections with ideological partners.
The movement against gender equality describes a worldwide alliance of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They do this by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five instances that affected the welfare, autonomy, and survival of the female population.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, six weeks after a key American development organization is suspended, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat reveals that over eighty percent of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, past leaders and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, warning that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among rights advocates. In May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny countless females from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was widely expected 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 cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
