Five Major Key Moments in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, groups dedicated to gender equality were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The flood and velocity of presidential directives issued from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a freeze on international development funds. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the central catalyst, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to build worldwide connections with political allies.
Often termed the anti-gender movement describes a worldwide alliance of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. This covers abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They accomplish their goals by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We look at five episodes that shaped the safety, dignity and lives of the female population.
USAID Dismantled
In early spring, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat reveals that nearly all of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, cautioning that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. 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.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a major forum to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In June, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
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 came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.
