The Beijing Conference Was a Victory for Women’s Movements. It’s Time to Believe in Them Again.

Thirty years after Beijing, the gains of women’s movements are undeniable—yet they remain underfunded at the very moment we need them most.

Thirty years ago this month, 45,000 women from around the world converged in Beijing and neighboring Huairou for the historic United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women.

In today’s hyperconnected world, it’s easy to miss how groundbreaking the mere fact of this gathering was: the largest number of women at that point in history assembled to lobby the world’s governments for their rights. As Gertrude Mongella, the legendary Tanzanian leader who served as secretary general of the conference, told the crowd: “The time has come for women to receive their rightful place in all societies and be recognized once and for all, that they are no more guests on this planet. This planet belongs to them too.” 

And that grand promise seemed to be coming true in Beijing. The most basic rights of women—to own land, to serve in government—all moved forward, thanks in large part to the persistence of thousands of organizations and activists around the world.

But today, as we mark the 30th anniversary, women’s movements are undernourished—at the time we need their power and effectiveness most.

As leaders of organizations that support women’s movements in 2025, we are for the most part too young to have ridden the buses jammed full of activists at Beijing, or to have been in the Plenary Hall as the world’s female prime ministers and first ladies delivered their ringing, historic speeches.

But as feminists, as professionals, as mothers and as humans, we live in a world that Beijing made possible, and so do you.

The time has come for women to receive their rightful place in all societies and be recognized once and for all, that they are no more guests on this planet. This planet belongs to them too.

Gertrude Mongella, first president of the Pan-African Parliament and president of the African Union Commission, 2003-2008

The Beijing Platform for Action—the bold blueprint for equality adopted by all 189 countries at the conference—urged, for instance, greater representation of women in government; soon thereafter, 22 countries passed laws on that issue and the ratio of women in parliaments has more than doubled since. (This matters on a personal level; if you live in a country with more women in government, you’re more likely to enjoy family-friendly policies like paid leave.)

The patform demanded that governments eliminate barriers to education for women and girls; and girls’ primary-school enrollment has more than doubled in the decades since. (Again, a fact that can transform whole generations, since having even primary education halves a woman’s later risk of dying in childbirth.)

The list goes on: Since Beijing, as a result of the policies women’s organizations pushed hard to get included in the platform, child marriages have dropped dramatically, 88 percent of the world’s governments have passed laws taking action on violence against women and the inclusion of women in peacemaking processes has led to more lasting conflict resolution in key regions.

Given the success of those efforts, the women’s movements who pushed for Beijing and saw their work transform the world could have been hailed as heroes and innovators. Instead, funding for women’s movements has—slowly over the last decades and then rapidly over the last year—begun to shrivel. As of this spring, an astonishing 47 percent of all women’s rights organizations in crisis regions projected that they would have to shut down within six months if current financial conditions continue. 

Meanwhile, not coincidentally, the crises these movements excel at addressing continue to mount, threatening to erode Beijing’s progress. After a decades-long drop, violence against women and gender-nonconforming people has actually risen over the last five years, and in 2025, for the first time since records have been kept, the number of women holding executive offices in governments around the world declined.

Many of the reasons for these alarming trends are known, and frequently discussed: the staggering number of conflicts worldwide, the disrupting effect of climate change and everywhere the rise of authoritarian regimes and an anti-rights movement that is richly and robustly funded. But the solution for them is often less talked-about, and right in front of us: women’s movements—which drove the change all of us have benefited from for decades.

And in fact, around the world, those groups have continued to do just that—even in today’s geopolitical landscape. 

They have led change on crucial issues affecting millions of women:

• Across Latin America, women’s organizations formed the Green Wave movement, successfully decriminalizing abortion in Colombia, Argentina and Mexico. In The Gambia last year, women’s groups successfully rallied to prevent their country from repealing its hard-won law against genital mutilation.
• Even in countries where the presence of women’s movements is literally now outlawed, they are leading, fighting to hold Afghanistan responsible for “gender apartheid,” and focusing the world’s attention on Iran after the death of Jina Amini in 2022.

For funders, governments and individuals—including those gathered at the U.N. General Assembly this week—the message is clear. If you don’t already support and fund women’s movements, start. If you already fund them, stand by your investments, which pay dividends for all the issues you care about. And if you’re marking the Beijing anniversary, know that any progress made since then was no accident. 

As Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway, put it at that conference: “The measure of our success cannot be fully assessed today. It will depend on the will of us all to fulfill what we have promised. The story of Beijing cannot be untold. What will be remembered?”

What we remember is the thrilling effectiveness of women’s movements. They are still here today—and we’ve never needed them more.

You may also like: Robin Morgan’s 1996 “Dispatch from Beijing” offers a vivid, critical account of the 1995 U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women and the parallel NGO Forum, highlighting both the landmark Beijing Platform for Action and the sexism, repression and logistical obstacles women endured in China. Despite the flaws, Morgan emphasizes that the conference consolidated decades of feminist gains and produced the strongest global statement on women’s rights to date.