“Speeches do not protect girls,” Malala Yousafzai said as she addressed the United Nations at the opening of this year’s Commission on the Status of Women hosted by UN Women.
When I heard her say it, I was sitting in a very full overflow room, watching on a screen. Malala was speaking about women and girls in Afghanistan whose lives are being restricted, erased and controlled. Yet, the truth she named echoed far beyond one nation, beyond one policy debate, beyond one experience of girlhood or womanhood.
Nikki Hardeman
What Malala named is not just a crisis in one place, but part of a troubling pattern of rolling back women’s rights around the world. This erosion of women’s rights is unfolding at every level of government and society in both visible and subtle ways.
This decline is not confined to one kind of place or people; it appears in both wealthy and under-resourced countries, in democracies as well as in autocracies.
While attending the CSW, I learned the United States withdrew its presence and funding from UN Women, so that women from the United States no longer are represented. Additionally, I learned the United States owes the United Nations more than $4 billion in dues and fees.
Together, these developments point to an unsettling reality: Local and global commitments to gender equality and the systems designed to hold each accountable are more fragile than we might assume.
Part of a larger pattern
Restricting the rights of women is one of the primary signals that democracy is eroding and autocracy is gaining ground. When women’s autonomy is limited by lessening their access to leadership, education, health care and public life, it signals a broader consolidation of power.
The erosion of women’s rights often is part of a larger pattern in which participation narrows, accountability weakens and entire communities are pushed to the margins. Concern for the status of women is not a lone concern. Understanding the status of women around the world can help us see if society is moving closer to justice or away from it.
“When women thrive, communities flourish.”
Yet, when women are fully included in governance, everyone benefits. In nations where women share equitably in decision-making and in political power, institutions are stronger and economies grow. Supporting women’s rights is not only about justice for women, it strengthens entire communities. When women thrive, communities flourish.
Same with the church
As the week unfolded, I realized the forces shaping women’s lives around the world are the very same forces shaping who is allowed to lead, to speak and to be fully recognized in the life of the church.
As someone who works daily to support and advocate for women in ministry, I could not separate what I was hearing at the United Nations from what I see in churches every day. What is practiced in the church echoes into the wider world. Justice work for women anywhere is justice work for women everywhere.
More directly, the struggles facing women globally are not separate from those facing women in ministry and leadership in the church. They are deeply connected. Women in ministry encounter the same oppressive systems that shape the lives of women everywhere.
There are limitations on leadership and access to decision-making power, diminished personal autonomy, the persistent need to prove their credibility in ways their male counterparts do not, and the ongoing risk of violence and harassment.
These are not parallel realities. They are the same realities, showing up in different spaces.
Conflicting messages
I returned to the CSW this year after attending in 2025 as part of the delegation with Baptist World Alliance Women, a member of Ecumenical Women, an international coalition of church bodies with consultative status at the United Nations. The commission itself, established in 1946, is the principal global intergovernmental body dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. It gathers advocates, policymakers and faith leaders from around the world, often working in alignment and sometimes in tension, to advance the rights of women and girls.
Unfortunately, not all the voices at the conference were working toward the same vision. In addition to the official work of the commission, there was also a parallel, independently organized gathering known as the Conference on the State of Women and Family. This event runs alongside CSW and brings together organizations and advocates who promote “pro-family” and “pro-life” perspectives, often emphasizing the role of traditional family structures in addressing the needs of women.
“The future of women’s rights is being shaped by competing frameworks.”
Although separate from the United Nations process, this parallel conference reflects the reality that the future of women’s rights is being shaped by competing frameworks and deeply held convictions about gender, family and autonomy.
These competing visions for women’s rights are not confined to the two weeks in March when the commission is held. They become realities in policies that are made and budgets that are set.
Faith communities
Understanding the fragility of nations’ commitments to advancing women’s equality, the question becomes: What role will communities of faith play in strengthening them or allowing them to erode further?
Many of the loudest voices advocating for the rollback of women’s rights are religious in nature. In the United States, the rise of Christian nationalism often promotes a vision of society in which men are the authorities in the family and the church and women are expected to submit. These frameworks are not mere theological concepts. Ideas and beliefs shape policies that limit women’s autonomy and prevent their full participation in public life.
Justice for women is not limited by geography. When women are denied rights or dignity in any context, the consequences extend beyond that setting and affect the whole.
“We need religious voices willing to speak clearly and courageously in support of women’s rights.”
More than ever, we need religious voices willing to speak clearly and courageously in support of women’s rights. We need churches to affirm that women’s rights are a gospel issue. Because others already have stepped into this conversation, choosing silence is itself a form of participation. But when we speak up, advocating for the dignity, agency and leadership of women, we are taking a faithful step in the right direction. It is faithful to speak up for others.
When women thrive in ministry and leadership, churches flourish. When women are ignored, excluded or rejected, churches struggle. The same barriers that exist in the world are present in the church, and they shape who is trusted to lead, who is invited to preach, who is publicly affirmed.
What is debated globally is practiced locally — in our sanctuaries, our committees and our pulpits. If the church ignores women’s rights globally, it will struggle to confront injustice within its own walls.
Faithful action requires more than agreement. It requires change. Such action involves intentionally opening pulpits, leadership roles and decision-making spaces to women. People of faith must confront the systems that have limited women’s participation rather than assuming they will change on their own. Ministers with influence can create opportunities for women to lead and, on occasion, give up their own opportunities so a woman can step forward.
Gender parity in decision-making spaces is vital in faith communities. Advocacy is not symbolic and cannot be achieved with beliefs and speeches only. Communities of faith must advocate through concrete decisions that shape who is seen, heard and trusted in the life of the church.
Malala was right: Speeches do not protect girls, women in ministry or the work of justice for women everywhere. Words alone are not enough, but silence cannot be an option. If speeches are not enough, they must lead to something more: Action, advocacy and communities willing to embody the justice they proclaim.
The question before us is not whether faith will shape the future of women’s rights. It already is. The question is which voices of faith will be heard. May our actions help ensure that voices of faith for equality rise above the forces of authoritarianism.
Nikki Hardeman serves as director for advocating for women in ministry at Baptist Women in Ministry. She lives in Atlanta with her two children and Jayne, the cutest rat terrier to ever live.