Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown
By Dr. Amber Webb, Managing Director of SDG Academy, Additionally posted on Apolitical
Last week marked the close of the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) and the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action (Beijing+30). Over the last two weeks, thousands of policymakers, political leaders, activists, and civil society representatives gathered to assess progress towards international commitments for women, and, amid much global uncertainty and political turmoil, forge a new path ahead. This year’s event celebrated nearly three decades of progress, leading to advancements in women’s health, girls’ education, and improvements in peace and security. At the same time, it highlighted a critical moment to recognize and combat regressive influences and a growing backlash against women.
I was honored to be among those present this year to reflect on the last three decades and promote continued action for women. Throughout this year’s historic CSW, two key themes consistently emerged: 1. The current context of gender backlash, and 2. Rethinking measurement and indicators to truly ensure social transformation.
Confronting the Gender Backlash
The world’s current political shifts point towards a backsliding of gender progress. Around the world, governments have made moves towards abandoning legislation and protections for women. Political leaders and policymakers have increasingly attempted to minimize issues of gender equality, and cultural movements have exacerbated gender-based violence (GBV). Decades of progressive leadership and collective commitments to the rights of women are at risk of a turn backward towards patriarchal norms and inequitable societies.
Gender backsliding has been an ongoing phenomenon, but certainly gained strength under recent circumstances. The last several years have produced the growth of subcultures, such as Incel groups and online anti-gender communities devoted to the oppression of women. Across various regions, recent elections have been a boon for these groups as leaders and government officials work to institutionalize anti-gender rhetoric into policy and law.
Most recently, the U.S. government targeted initiatives aimed at diversity, equity, and inclusion to be banned, forcing federal projects like NASA to erase mentions of “Women in STEM” and minimize efforts aimed to enhance the participation of women and girls in various sectors. In Argentina, the Ministry of Women, Gender, and Diversity was consolidated then closed in 2024. In Hungary, reproductive choice now requires mandatory counseling, which often includes an aggressive pro-life agenda.
Gender equality has long been contested, but opposition to it has become more vocal, widespread, and better organized in recent years. As a result, anti-gender movements are growing and being validated by regressive government leaders.
Amber Webb
This year also marks four years since the takeover of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Under Taliban rule, girls have not been permitted to go to school beyond the 6th grade, and the vast majority of women are not permitted to work outside the home. Gender equality has long been contested, but opposition to it has become more vocal, widespread, and better organized in recent years. As a result, anti-gender movements are growing and being validated by regressive government leaders.
Within this context of political turmoil and backsliding of women’s rights, those committed to the work of CSW and global gender progress must navigate reforms. This topic loomed heavily at CSW as discussions unfolded on how to fortify gender efforts against the recent wave of antagonists.
Measuring Real Progress
Another theme to take center stage at CSW was the measurement of progress. The Beijing platform identified 12 critical areas of concern for which governments around the world have implemented solutions. Beijing+30 aimed to take stock of these areas and critiques quickly emerged on how UN Member States collect and represent data, and whether such representations display truly transformative outcomes.
In a session hosted by UN Women and the Inter-parliamentary Union, the 2025 Women in Politics Report was launched, which noted that approximately 23% of cabinet positions are held by women. Digging deeper into the data we find that women appointed to these roles often lead work linked to human rights, gender equality, and social protection, while men dominate more influential policy areas like foreign affairs, financial and fiscal affairs, home affairs, and defense. This example highlights that solely focusing on the representation of women via parity in government, may not accurately indicate equitable power and influence.
How progress is defined and measured is a key component of any global development objective.
-Amber Webb
With regard to violence against women, several Member States have highlighted important legislation passed to protect women and prosecute offenders. Yet many of these same countries still do not explicitly criminalize marital rape or child marriage. Instead ‘violence against women’ is often defined in narrow terms that fail to fully capture reality. Intergovernmental agencies (UNWomen, World Bank, World Health Organization) have begun recognizing or tracking intimate partner violence (IPV) but many governments are slow to recognize IPV and instead focus on reporting elsewhere. Quite often national presentations of progress use selective indicators that tell only part of a story.
Lastly, common assumptions about progress are not always evidenced by data. In a comparative review of women’s labor market participation in South Asia with secondary school completion rates of girls, it was found that although gender parity had narrowed considerably in education, it did not always translate to higher economic status or an increase in the number of working women at the same rate. Education did not directly lead to greater labor force participation, a common assumption in development planning, but rather needed to be coupled with additional factors.
How progress is defined and measured is a key component of any global development objective. In the case of women, indicators of success have often been selective, overlooked, or under-analyzed. CSW is an important platform to continue discussing progress, but deeply complex questions remain on how we track, view, and validate success.
Steps to Achieving Gender Progress
In the 30 years since the Beijing Conference, we have made significant strides. The percentage of women in parliament more than doubled, many countries achieved parity in education, and three more countries elected their first-ever female head of state in 2024. Yet, CSW69 highlighted uneven progress, continued gaps in policy implementation, and increasingly challenging political contexts. With CSW69 now concluded and a new political declaration adopted, where do we go from here?
- Governments must repeal discriminatory laws and establish justice-oriented policies: in an era when issues of equity and social justice are being sidelined by regressive leaders, citizens must force their governments to fight for women. Progress is backsliding at an expedited rate but can be reset when governments are held accountable.
- Activists and civil society must continue to identify gaps: policy production and legal reforms do not always translate to on-the-ground progress for women. Yet a robust civil society can ignite change by connecting policy to practice and highlighting the inefficiencies to improve upon.
- Amplify efforts around SDG5: the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a strong blueprint for making progress across an array of sectors. SDG 5 offers 9 targets and 14 indicators to promote gender equality. Moreover UN Women found that 14 of the Sustainable Development Goals depend on eliminating gender-based violence. Bringing strength and attention to the SDGs will enable gender progress and further the vision of the Beijing Platform for Action.
