How The Trump Presidency Will Impact Women Around The World

While it is difficult to measure how a Trump presidency will affect global male violence against women, a rightwing manifesto for a second Trump term called Project 2025 aims to extend the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (widely known as the Mexico City Policy), also rescinded by the Biden Administration, to all U.S. foreign assistance — including gender equality and economic empowerment programs, along with humanitarian aid. This extension would go directly against evidence indicating that women and children in emergencies are often at increased risk of sexual and gender-based violence. However, in his campaign strategy, it is worth noting that Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025.

“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump said in a social media post earlier this year. “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

LGBTQIA+ and racial rights

A second Trump administration has promised to rescind federal policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. In particular, their proposed policies would mean transgender people would no longer have access to gender-affirming medical care, will end programmes that “promote… gender transition at any age,” and push for a federal law stating the government doesn’t legally recognise trans people.

Trump’s anti-immigration policies are also cause for concern for women and girls. “Kamala has imported an army of illegal alien gang members and migrant criminals from the dungeons of the third world,” Trump said at a rally in October, “…from prisons and jails and insane asylums and mental institutions, and she has had them resettled beautifully into your community to prey upon innocent American citizens.”

At a campaign rally in Arizona the same month, Trump said: “When I win on November 5th, the migrant invasion ends and the restoration of our country begins.” He pledged to hire 10,000 more border patrol agents, adding that the US is “now known all throughout the world as an occupied country.”

Women in conflict

We don’t yet know how Trump’s presidency will impact conflict zones around the world, but judging by his previous foreign policy – including a deal with the Taliban in 2020 to withdraw troops from Afghanistan – many are fearful for how his decisions will impact ongoing conflicts.

Trump has pledged to end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours” via a settlement with Russia. “I know Zelensky very well, and I know Putin very well,” he said during the presidential debate. “I think it’s the US best interest to get this war finished and just get it done, negotiate a deal.” Trump gave no details on what this deal would include. The Kremlin has said nothing can be done in 24 hours.

There is also concern about how Trump’s presidency could impact women in war zones in the Middle East, where negotiations are still ongoing. Aid worker Tiara Sahar Ataii says that for the vast majority of women that she has met around the world, their needs are directly intertwined with socioeconomic discrimination. “I had a number of discussions with Afghan women who are female head of households and struggled with not having a male guardian in a country that’s explicitly persecutory of women,” Ataii said. “But the women I talked to were really clear that they were poor, that they had become poorer as a result of increased sanctions.”

“We know globally, that where there’s not enough money, it’s always women who eat less, it’s always women’s education that becomes the bottom priority as opposed to boy’s education,” said the aid worker. Ataii said, referencing Trump pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, which caused what she called, “absolute freefall in the Iranian economy,” and has been “catastrophic for women in Iran.”

These categories are not all-encompassing of what a Trump presidency will mean for women around the globe – only time will tell. But today, women around the world are preparing for a second Trump Administration in the United States and its resounding global impact.