UN Warns of Global Backlash on Women's Rights

At the 80th U.N. General Assembly in 2025, Secretary‑General Antonio Guterres warned world leaders of a “wave of misogyny” and technological threats driving a global backlash that has made progress since the 1995 Beijing conference slow and uneven. Analysts and development experts say advancing women’s economic empowerment is both a rights and growth imperative—BCG and World Bank estimates suggest closing gender gaps in employment and entrepreneurship could raise global GDP by over 20%—so mainstreaming gender across programs is a high‑leverage strategy amid tightening budgets. Practical initiatives and country responses are emerging, including FIDE’s Queen’s Gambit Challenge Intermediate Stage offering free structured online training to more than 580 women from over 80 countries. Civil society and academia are convening multidisciplinary forums such as Kuwait’s “Women between Rights and Belonging” to propose legal, social, Sharia and educational reforms to strengthen women’s rights and inclusion. In South Africa, new Employment Equity regulations with sector‑specific numerical targets took effect on Sept. 1, 2025, and followed an Aug. 31 deadline for updated EE plans; some have called the measures punitive while others defend them as pragmatic enforcement to rebalance representation and boost growth. Speakers at the Beijing Platform’s 30th‑anniversary gatherings urged renewed investment in underfunded women’s movements and integration of women’s leadership into peace, justice and political processes to safeguard gains and advance lasting security and democratic resilience.