Has there ever been a better time to be a feminist? This question may seem strange at a time when women’s rights are arguably under the most serious threat in a generation.
The gains made over almost half a century have been rolled back. In the US, President Donald Trump began his second term by dismantling federal policies on diversity, equity, and inclusion. There are only two genders, that Said This is like a reversal of transgender rights. Gender studies are being removed from the academic curriculum; Texas A&M University has announced the end of its women’s and gender studies program. And in Florida, schools are eliminating classes related to gender identity.
Ongoing wars and conflicts have increased the insecurity of women and girls. Rape is being used as a weapon of war, with cases of sexual violence increasing by 87% in just two years, according to a new study. UN report.
165 schoolgirls were injured in a targeted bombing of a school by US-Israeli forces in Iran on February 28, The New York Times reports. Israel’s destruction of Gaza, which began in October 2023, is expected to cost the lives of 28,000 women and children by May 2025. According To the United Nations. In Sudan 11 million women and girls face severe food insecurity.
In 64 countries around the world, homosexual sexual acts are a criminal offense. They are given the death penalty in seven of these, including Brunei, Uganda and Yemen. Taking inspiration from Russia which extended a law to ban the promotion of non-heterosexual relationships until 2022, Hungary banned the Budapest Pride event.
Women will have only 64% of the legal rights of men by March 2026 world bank report Finds. In practice the picture is blurry and countries are, on average, installing less than 40% of the systems needed for full implementation. For example, the report said, of the 98 economies that have laws mandating equal pay for women, only 35 have adopted pay-transparency or enforcement mechanisms.
Rape is still not defined on the basis of consent in 54% of the world’s countries. France Pur: The idea of including consent in our rape laws came about after the horrific rape trial of 52 men convicted of raping Gisele Pellicote in October last year.
“A justice system that fails half the population cannot claim to uphold justice,” said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous.
If it feels like we’re running in place, consider this new threats Of technology-facilitated violence. A New Year’s flex by Grok, the AI arm of Elon Musk’s Axe, went on a digital stripping spree of real women and girls until global outrage and the threat of legal action shut it down. Digital technology is exacerbating the already existing digital divide. Online manosphere communities are able to connect and spread toxic ideas about masculinity and a woman’s place in that world.
misogyny by design
These are not accidents, but misogyny as official policy, dictated by the patriarchs who lead the world.
Nowhere is the horror of officially sanctioned misogyny more evident than in afghanistan Who just last month made it legal to beat your wife, as long as you don’t break her bones. The warning is controversial because even if you do, how will she prosecute? She could not leave the house without a male guardian – in many cases the same person who had given her a government-sanctioned beating. How will she prove injuries since she can’t break modesty laws by exposing her body to strangers? How will she seek medical treatment, since it is haraam for her to get examined by a male doctor? If women are not allowed to study beyond secondary school, how will they qualify to become doctors?
Afghanistan is an extreme example of this. But please remember, it is completely legal to rape your wife in India, provided she is above 18 years of age. The government has told the court that criminalizing marital rape would destroy the sanctity of marriage. But what is the sanctity of a sexually violent marriage?
Tradition is often invoked to justify continuing problems of various kinds. Arranged marriage is tradition and marrying outside the ambit of caste and faith is subversion, even though the Constitution of India guarantees the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and freedom of speech, expression and association under Article 19. These have been interpreted by the Supreme Court to include the right to choose one’s partner.
Yet, at least 12 states in India – 13 if you include Maharashtra, which approved a bill earlier this week – have laws that prevent forced religious conversions to “protect daughters,” but which make inter-faith marriages nearly impossible at the grassroots level. While the law was originally passed by the BJP government in Karnataka, the current Congress government shows no signs of repealing it.
The proposed amendment to marriage registration rules in Gujarat also includes parental consent. In Uttarakhand, the first Indian state to implement a uniform civil code after independence, adult couples choosing to live together will have to register with local authorities through a 16-page form.
These restrictive, unconstitutional laws and rules have been made in the name of ‘safety’ of women, because even in 2026, we still have ideas of family honor embedded in their behaviour. the fact that honor killing Carry On tells us about the deep roots of patriarchy, and what supports it.
Earlier this month, the Allahabad High Court was hearing a case of honor killing, where a 15-year-old girl was killed by her parents after they found out she was pregnant. The trial court sentenced the killer parents to life imprisonment and the Allahabad High Court justified That decision. But in what sounded suspiciously like sympathy, the judges said that conceiving a daughter out of wedlock is a ‘nightmare’ for an average Indian that can invite ‘unruly’, often violent, reactions from parents.
Another tradition, dowry, which has been illegal since 1961, claims 17 lives a day, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Many of these lives could have been saved if the families of women who complain that they are being abused and tortured in their marital homes stopped counseling them to ‘adjust’ and told them it was okay to return home. Many of these lives could have been saved if parents had focused on education and career rather than marriage as the main milestone in their daughter’s life.
Domestic violence accounts for 31.4% of all crimes against women in India. Two decades ago we passed a law against domestic violence, designed to provide relief from child custody issues to residency rights. These issues were to be resolved within 60 days.
Yet, while reporting on a two-part series on domestic violence, I found that the oldest case in a Delhi court dates back to 2002. The infrastructure to support the law never arrived, including shelter homes and dedicated security officers. For example, in Jharkhand, Anganwadi workers were given the additional work of conservation officers. And Delhi Women Commission is without a head since 2024.
silver linings
Despite the grounds for pessimism, there are undeniable rays of hope.
New conversations are taking place on topics that have been taboo for decades. For example, menstrual hygiene and, more recently, menopause care. As state governments including Karnataka start offering menstrual leave to those in need, Maharashtra opened the country’s first dedicated menopause clinic earlier this year. Within the first few days of inauguration, 22,000 women had visited a clinic in Pune.
Decades of work by feminist economists have drawn far greater attention to the value of unpaid housework as a major factor that keeps women from paid work. The courts have taken cognizance. Last month, in a maintenance case, the Delhi High Court said that even if the wife is not employed, she still contributes significantly to the household.
The global fertility crisis has led policy makers and governments globally to ask how women might be more willing to have more children. Discussions range from extending paternity leave to allowing a more equitable distribution of caregiving more flexibility Adjusting jobs to accommodate family responsibilities for employed parents.
At a time when women’s representation in parliaments around the world is stuck at 27.2% in 2025 to 27.5% in 2026, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, India has passed a law that will earmark 33% of parliamentary and assembly seats for women in future elections resulting in far greater representation.
There are already signs of accommodation. This month, Mamata Banerjee, one of the two women chief ministers, named senior lawyer Maneka Guruswamy as the TMC candidate for the Rajya Sabha. Guruswami’s academic and professional credentials are excellent. She also appeared for petitioners in the 2018 Supreme Court case decriminalizing homosexuality and in the unsuccessful 2023 marriage equality petition. But as the first openly LGBTQ member of Parliament, Guruswamy’s presence in Parliament makes it more inclusive and representative.
There is also a demand for representation from a group of senior women advocates in Indian law. Their demand is half country, half bench. This seems fair enough. There is only one woman judge out of 34 in the Supreme Court and the number of women judges in the high courts is only between 13% to 14%.
Senior advocate Shobha Gupta, one of the organisers, said, “Men do not need to organize conferences to demand their rights.” “But this half of the population needs to keep reminding the system that we exist and we are still being denied our fair share.”
A generation of aspirational, confident and ambitious women are aware that it can no longer be business as usual, with men deciding how to run the world.
Thanks to government policies and the intervention and activism of non-profit organizations, girls have already closed the education gap to a great extent. On the field of play, they are leading the way and the November 2025 Cricket World Cup victory by women was driven by grit and confidence.
Even the simple act of exercising one’s franchise once every five years has now become a muscular flex. Not only are women voting in larger numbers than men, there is also evidence that they are exercising their own choices rather than following family orders on who to vote for. It is an exercise that has borne fruit as male-dominated political parties across all ideologies and geographies are trying to garner loyalty through a range of schemes ranging from lump sum cash to free bus fares.
No one, no one, messes with a strong woman. And that’s why this might be the best time to be a feminist.
