With movements to roll back gender rights on the rise around the world, Kelly Mundy and Rachel Noble explain why the fight to protect them is more important than ever and set out three things we can do to support them.
In the month of International Women’s Day, we’re filled with several feelings: fear, sadness, rage, and a real sense of injustice. Though the relentless efforts of feminist movements around the world have brought many positive changes, so much more needs to be done. Gender equality is yet to be achieved by a single country. And worryingly there has been a rise in movements seeking to undermine and roll back some of the most basic gender rights*.
This is all compounded by multiple crises (such as the cost of living, conflicts, and the impacts of climate change) which already disproportionately affect women, girls and gender diverse people, especially those facing multiple forms of inequality such as race, age, class and caste.
Recent budget cuts to international aid in the UK, US and other countries will make things even worse. They are an attack on women, girls and gender diverse people who already have to fight for their basic human rights to be upheld, such as decisions about their own bodies, their right to dignified work that pays fair wages, and to access healthcare, clean water, and education. We’ve already seen during previous aid cuts how funding for gender equality was impacted particularly severely, whilst funding for women’s rights organisations and feminist networks already amounts to less than 1% of aid. The new cuts will only deepen all forms of inequalities and poverty.
An era of anti-rights
Oxfam’s latest report ‘Personal to Powerful’ explores how far right actors and anti-rights movements worldwide are actually trying to reverse progress on gender and LGBTQIA+ rights. They are fuelling sexism and racism and undermining the rights of women, girls and gender diverse people, especially when it comes to personal decisions and bodily autonomy.
This is beyond concerning: it’s dangerous. We seem to be entering a new era of “anti-rights”. So what can any of us do? We can start by being the change and by remembering the words of Angela Davis, a pioneering civil rights activist: “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept”
The good news: inequalities aren’t inevitable
The good news is none of this is inevitable. The extent to which the rights of women, girls and gender diverse people are realised is shaped by choices, choices made by governments. In fact, governments are bound by numerous international human rights agreements to ensure rights for all. The problem is these choices are too often based on the undue power and influence of the super-rich and multinational corporations rather than the greater good.
The power of the super-rich
It’s clear that we must challenge the power of the super-rich. With wealth comes power and with power comes the ability to rig the rules further in their favour. This is unfolding before our eyes. Never before has a take-over of power been so brazenly obvious by the super-rich.
In fact, it’s never been a better time to be a billionaire. Oxfam recently launched a report called ‘Takers not Makers’ which highlighted the ever-growing wealth of billionaires. In 2024, billionaire wealth rose by $2 trillion dollars compared to 2023. At the same time, 3.6 billion people continue to live in poverty. And these billionaires aren’t making money on merit: our report found billionaire wealth is largely unearned and comes from inheritance, monopoly power and cronyism. This accumulation of wealth by a small few is perpetuating inequality, and undermining the rights of people around the world, especially women, girls and gender diverse people to live a dignified life free from poverty.
Understanding the threat to rights posed by extreme inequality alongside other threats from anti-rights actors will be crucial to the fight for gender justice in the coming months and years.
So how do we reclaim power and protect fundamental human rights? Here are three things we can do:
1. Understand the system we live in and its design
Our economies are built on ideologies and practices rooted in exploitation and extraction that funnel wealth and power upwards, as our Takers Not Makers report outlines. The global economic system, designed by mostly white men from the Global North, benefits a few, leaving everyone else to pay the price – especially in countries that are economically poorer due to the ongoing impacts of colonialism, and especially women, girls and gender diverse people. This is designed deliberately with economic and political decisions being made which upholds an economic system which is unfair, unaccountable, and perpetuates inequalities within and between countries.
For example, it is women and girls in economically poorer countries working, for example, in global value chains making garments or producing tea for multinationals based in the Global North, who are subject to poor working conditions with low pay and at greater risk of abuse and violence. Racialised and migrant women from the Global North also face disproportionate economic deprivation and marginalisation.
2. Be ready to act as well as speak up
We have to be ready to disrupt the system and challenge the voices supporting it to overcome the inequalities it creates. We must take up space with people-centred narratives and story-telling to put pressure on those in power to make the right choices for people and planet and hold them to account for the harms they have caused.
The role of civil society organisations such as Oxfam must be to support the voices whose right it is to be heard and present strong evidence to counteract the narratives of the rich and powerful. By doing this we can act in solidarity with women, girls and gender diverse people and their movements in national, regional and global spaces. We need to push for new policies and practices that can change the system and uphold the rights of all, including women, girls and gender diverse people, and safeguard the planet.
This includes challenging cuts to public services and social protection and demanding alternative policies such as taxing the super-rich more fairly; cancelling debt so we can increase financing for feminist movements; and developing alternative economic measures to GDP to guide policies and investments that prioritise rights, justice and wellbeing for people and planet. Supporting greater representation of feminist movements to counter anti-rights rhetoric in global forums such as the Climate COP (Conference of the Parties) and the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development, taking place in Spain this summer, is also critical.
3. Support feminist movements
We can be part of and support feminist and social justice movements to strengthen their resolve with people power. Feminist movements in the UK and around the world are on the frontline of challenging backlash and demanding meaningful change. They work tirelessly to hold decision-makers to account, generate evidence, and provide information, support and opportunities for all of us to raise our voice, take action and call for change. By engaging, we can be part of the movement to challenge power for a fairer, more equal world.
Here are just a handful of feminists movements and organisations you can find out more about through their websites, socials and podcasts:
- The Women’s Budget Group
- Gender and Development Network
- The Fawcett Society
- Katy Styles (We Care)
- Smallwood Trust
- Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) –
- JASS
- The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)
The late US Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg observed that: “Women’s rights are an essential part of the overall human rights agenda.” This International Women’s Day and beyond, we have to raise our voices in support of these rights, and against the danger that populist, far right politics and the super-rich pose to a fairer world. We must be inspired by the feminist movements and support their brave efforts to protect and strengthen the fundamental rights of women, girls, gender diverse people and those facing multiple forms of inequality.
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*Note: Gender rights mean “encompassing the rights of all individuals regardless of gender, are fundamental human rights, including the right to be free from discrimination and violence, to have equal access to opportunities, and to participate fully in all aspects of life.”
This is the second in a series of blogs for International Women’s Day 2025. Follow us on X/Twitter and BlueSky to keep up with the latest blogs and Oxfam research.