The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood:
Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.
International Women’s Day in 2025 finds progress under threat. The global landscape for women’s rights is at a paradox: gains and rollbacks, resilience and repression, victories tempered by the suffocating weight of political inertia. Here’s where the fight stands today.
A Year of Backlash
Thirty years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, one of the most ambitious blueprints for gender equality, the cracks are showing. According to UN Women, nearly a quarter of countries worldwide report an active backlash against women’s rights, driven by rising far-right nationalism, religious conservatism, and anti-gender movements.
These reactionary forces are not just theoretical — they translate into real policy rollbacks.
- In the United States, abortion rights have been stripped away state by state since the fall of Roe v. Wade.
- In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has promoted a nationalist, pro-family agenda that restricts abortion access through bureaucratic obstacles.
- In the Philippines, anti-abortion efforts are being fueled by funding from groups like Human Life International, a U.S.-based Catholic apostolate that engages in “legal activism” by working with ultra-conservative bishops and lawmakers to undermine reproductive rights.
- In South Korea, despite the Constitutional Court’s 2021 ruling that criminalizing abortion up to 22 weeks was unconstitutional, a lower court upheld a ban on access to the Women on Web website, restricting access to online medical abortion services.
This isn’t a series of isolated events — it’s a pattern. A tightening of control. A message, clear and unrelenting: gains can be undone.
Violence Against Women
Violence against women remains a global epidemic. A woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes by a partner or family member, according to the latest UN report.
- In conflict zones, sexual violence against women has surged by 50 percent since 2022, with cases documented in Ukraine, Sudan, and Myanmar, according to UN Women.
- In Kenya, Africa Uncensored recorded the highest number of women murdered ever in one year. They compiled 170 cases within 2024 alone.
- In Morocco, approximately 57 percent of women experience physical or sexual violence from their intimate partners.
- In Sudan, over 200 children, including girls, have been raped as conflict rages across the nation since early 2024, according to a UN report. Shockingly, 16 of the survivors were under five years old, including four one-year-olds.
- In the United Kingdom, a report from the Femicide Census found that one in eight women killed by men over the past 15 years were over 70. Since 2009, 262 women over 70 have been killed — often victims of domestic abuse.
- In Iran, the government has intensified crackdowns on women defying mandatory hijab laws, using state violence to enforce dress codes.
- In Afghanistan, women and girls are facing a systematic erasure from public life, as the Taliban bans them from schools, universities, and even public parks
These aren’t just human rights violations — they are gender apartheid, and the international community’s response has been chillingly inadequate.
Women in Power
Globally, women make up only 26.9 percent of parliamentary seats, a number that has stagnated for a decade. Only 27 countries currently have a female head of state or government, a number that has risen only slightly from 18 a decade ago. Yet, key milestones signal progress.
- In Namibia, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwahbecame the country’s first female president in December 2024.
- In Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum was elected as the nation’s first female president in October 2024.
- In North Macedonia, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkovah was elected as the nation’s first female president in May 2024.
Beyond executive leadership, parliamentary representation is shifting — though at wildly different speeds. Rwanda continues to lead the world with 61.3 percent of parliamentary seats held by women, a remarkable achievement that remains unmatched. Cuba and Nicaragua follow, with 53.4 percent and 51.7 percent, respectively. In some countries, gender-equal cabinets are becoming the norm. Mexico and the United Kingdom both achieved gender-balanced cabinets in 2024, according to a UN report.
The Economics of Inequality
The wage gap persists globally, with women still earning 20 percent less than men on average. In some regions, the disparity is even greater — women in Sub-Saharan Africa face wage gaps as high as 35 percent in certain industries.
Even in nations renowned for their egalitarian principles, inequities persist. In Norway, men earn 13 percent more than women on average, a statistic that has remained largely unchanged since 2015.
Access to affordable childcare remains a major barrier to women’s workforce participation. In the UK, exorbitant childcare costs have contributed to a decline in female full-time employment, pushing the country down to 18th place in PwC’s Women in Work Index.
Conversely, Scotland’s implementation of free childcare has been highlighted as a positive model, potentially boosting GDP by £43.5 billion by 2030 if adopted more broadly.
Meanwhile, unpaid labor continues to be a silent crisis — an estimated 708 million women worldwide are outside the labour force because of unpaid care responsibilities, according to the International Labour Organization. In Northern Africa, 63 percent of women outside the labor force cite caregiving as the primary reason, the highest globally, followed by the Arab States at 59 percent. In Asia and the Pacific, the figure stands at 52 percent, with minimal variation across subregions.
Education and Reproductive Rights
Education is often touted as the great equalizer, but access to learning remains sharply gendered. Globally, 119 million girls are denied the human right to education, according to UNICEF.
- In Afghanistan, girls have been barred from secondary education for nearly three years, creating a lost generation of young women who may never return to school.
- In Nigeria, the militant group Boko Haram has persistently targeted educational institutions, especially those for girls.
These examples underscore a troubling reality: in many regions, girls are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys, particularly in conflict-affected areas.
Reproductive rights are another battlefield.
- In the U.S., Congress slashed funding for global reproductive health programs, cutting off contraceptive access for millions in developing nations in January 2025. The consequences are already being felt: higher maternal mortality rates, more unintended pregnancies, and the rollback of hard-won reproductive freedoms in vulnerable regions.
- In El Salvador, a woman named Beatriz was denied a life-saving abortion despite carrying a nonviable fetus, exposing the country’s brutal abortion laws. In December 2024, the IACHR ruled El Salvador violated her rights.
Furthermore, the introduction of Project 2025 proposes to roll back civil and human rights, implementing extremist conservative policies across federal departments and agencies. This includes numerous attacks on sexual and reproductive health and rights, further limiting reproductive autonomy.
These developments highlight the precarious state of reproductive rights, with 24 countries globally prohibiting abortion altogether, affecting approximately 90 million women of reproductive age.
The Resistance
Despite the odds, women worldwide are standing their ground.
- In Mexico, feminist collectives have led mass protests against gender violence, forcing legal changes and police reforms.
- In South Korea, the radical “4B Movement” (which rejects marriage, childbirth, and traditional gender roles) has sparked a cultural reckoning about misogyny.
- In France, Gisèle Pelicot’s courageous decision to publicize her experience as a survivor of mass rape has sparked global solidarity. Her ex-husband, Dominique, was charged with drugging her and facilitating her assault by numerous men over nearly a decade. Pelicot’s bravery in bringing this atrocity to light has inspired support worldwide, leading to rallies and public expressions of solidarity, and highlighting systemic issues surrounding sexual violence and consent.
The Woman of the Year 2025 awards honored trailblazing women across industries in the U.S. Winners included Anna Meares and Marjorie Jackson-Nelson (Women in Sport), Annabel West (Top Business Professional), Maggie Beer (Jobs Statewide Leader and People’s Choice), Mandy Hall (SkyCity Hospitality Hero), Roz Hervey (Creative Arts Trailblazer), Khadija Gbla (Community Champion), Flavia Tata Nardini (Top Innovator), and Amelia Griffin (Rising Star). Emma Stevens, named Woman of the Year, was recognized for her advocacy for organ donation in honor of her late son, Charlie.
International Women’s Day isn’t just a milestone — it’s a marker of the ongoing struggle. A reminder that progress isn’t permanent, that every right won is a right that can be lost, and that those in power are willing to legislate, fund, and enforce the erosion of women’s freedoms.
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