Global Scans · Gender Equality · Weekly Summary

In September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development. If these Goals are completed, it would mean an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030.
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower women and girls.

• [New] The rise of anti-gender rights movements is jeopardising legal protections for women and girls around the world, threatening to undo decades of legal progress. Equality Now
• [New] Looking at what's coming in 2026, the biggest questions will center around Medicaid financing, parity enforcement, reproductive and gender-affirming care, harm reduction policy, and whether the federal government continues to retreat from equity-centered health policy. Behavioral Health News
• [New] If Amendment 3 passes in Missouri, gender transition surgeries and the prescription of cross-sex hormones and puberty-blockers for children under the age of 18 will be banned. AOL
• [New] By 2026, the intersection of gender-driven tech leadership and AI workplace integration is not just a social imperative but a strategic investment opportunity. Ainvest
• [New] Global crises - including climate change, conflict, rising authoritarianism, and digital threats - are creating new risks and widening existing gender gaps. WFUNA
• Promoting gender-balanced participation will strengthen Ukraine's mine action capacity and align reconstruction with broader principles of equality and social inclusion. FREE NETWORK
• The Food and Drug Administration says it's going to go after the manufacturers of chest binders, alleging they are illegally marketing them to children as a treatment for gender dysphoria. Reason.com
• The Food and Drug Administration warned makers of breast binders, used by many transgender males to flatten their chests, about illegally marketing their products to minors with gender dysphoria. The Week
• New Hampshire will prohibit prescribing hormone treatments and puberty blockers to alter a child's gender and will ban certain surgeries as gender care for minors. Yahoo News
• The Northern Territory government will no longer fund puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormone treatments for children. Australian Broadcasting Corporation
• Israel had increasingly employed sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians, including forced public stripping and nudity, sexual harassment including threats of rape, as well as sexual assault. BBC News
• Peace and Security Index, Afghanistan ranks bottom out of 181 countries on almost every measure of women's wellbeing, from the threat of partner violence to gender-based political persecution and general women's safety. Spiked
• In the United States, partisanship constrains gender affinity, such that women voters will rarely cross party lines to vote for a woman. Cambridge Core
• The EU pay transparency directive, which member states must implement by 2026, will require employers to provide greater transparency around pay and eliminate gender pay gaps. Mishcon de Reya LLP
• The European Commission is drafting its next Gender Equality Strategy through 2030, expected to include measures addressing violence against women, the gender pay gap and working conditions. The Parliament Magazine
• The National Strategy for Women and Girls 2025-2030 is Ireland's plan for advancing gender equality over the next five years. Government of Ireland
• The Supreme Court's recent decision in United States v. Skrmetti to uphold a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care, along with the Trump Administration's shift in position on sex discrimination in the health care context, will embolden states to enhance state-level restrictions. Crowell & Moring - FTC Workshop Suggests Federal and St

Last updated: 11 January 2026