Whither Women’s and Girls’ Rights, in Our Brave New World?
With a growing number of governments worldwide leaning authoritarian and fueled by religion, our rights to bodily autonomy, reproductive health care, education, free expression, equal pay, equal justice are at heightened risk.
The women’s rights agenda is decades old and well-understood by now, and fearless gender rights activists continue to mobilize across the globe. Yet with the United States now primed for retrenchment from the global stage and European leadership increasingly unsteady, the infusion of resources that, over recent decades, has enabled progress on the legal front, in national governments, and in local communities has already slowed and is in danger of running dry. The renewed pressure on women in numerous countries to go home and propagate suggests that the battle to protect women’s rights is far from won.
“Retrogressive movements are jeopardising women’s and girls’ human rights, as well as the progress achieved in advancing gender equality in all regions of the world,” the Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls reported last summer to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
“As a result,” the Working Group argued, “the world is witnessing an escalating backlash against sexual and reproductive health rights, ever-present misogynistic statements in the media and the rise of public anti-gender discourse, as well as attacks on women and girl human rights defenders.”
Historically, advances for women and girls have served as reliable triggers for fierce political responses to other forms of civic progress. Or as veteran women’s rights activist Pamela Shifman framed it in a forum last winter, “There is no democracy without women’s rights…. [T]he authoritarian right has been making those connections for decades. While we know that women’s rights are central to democracy, they know that patriarchy and control of women’s bodies are central to authoritarianism. So when they crack down on gender and racial justice, it’s not just a side strategy. It’s literally fundamental to the political project that they are putting forward.”
Shockingly, the U.S. now serves as Exhibit A for how this crackdown can unfold: 13 states now ban abortion outright, with another 28 banning the procedure beyond proscribed gestational limits; this year alone, 574 bills attacked LGBTQ rights in 42 state legislatures, and in the democracy arena, over the last decade, 94 new laws restricting voting rights have been passed in 29 states.
Across the globe, non-governmental organizations, such as the many women-led NGOs partnering with my nonprofit WomenStrong International, are watching closely. Most immediately, they fear a repeat of the stark cutoffs and dramatic reductions, during the first Trump administration, of U.S. financing through the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the United States President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Of course, advances toward gender equity are not harming anyone. We know that the reduction in maternal mortality, parental leave, and equal pay contribute to the health and wellbeing of our children and families, as do individuals’ right to self-expression, to bodily autonomy, and to love whom they love. Yet the narcissistic wound inflicted by the sense of losing ground or status creates the powerful illusion of a zero-sum game, where there can be no advancement for one constituency without the diminishment of another.
With so much at risk, we must now think strategically, as though on emergency footing. To sustain our progress toward gender equity, it’s critical that the nonprofit sector, local governments, multilateral agencies, corporations, and philanthropy large and small step up, bigtime, for rights defenders. Only the determined, uninterrupted provision of essential resources and personnel will spare us an irreparable backsliding toward a less just world. With women still serving as our primary caregivers and natural protectors, when women’s rights are at risk, the fate and rights of our children, our elderly, those living with disabilities, our indigenous neighbors, and our planet are all imperiled; to protect all our rights, our democracies, and our very planet, this is our moment to help fill in the breach by standing with women and girls.
In their Conclusion to their UN Human Rights Council report, the Working Group wrote that they “cannot overemphasize the transformative force of millions of women and girls worldwide and of their movements and allies that strive to advance women’s and girls’ rights, resist pushbacks and build just, inclusive, peaceful and sustainable societies for all, despite, and often in reaction to, the many barriers that they continue to face. They are an inspiration to everyone and the main reason for hope and optimism for the future.”
This Human Rights Day, we join forces with those building “just, inclusive, peaceful and sustainable societies for all.” As the Working Group concluded, the rights of ALL peoples – and the life and health of our planet – depend on that hope for the future, and on the empowerment of all our women and girls.
