Phoenix rising: women, AI, and the architecture of a world that cares

There is a particular quality of fire that destroys completely and, in doing so, reveals exactly what must be rebuilt, and by whom.

I have spent over three decades fighting for women and girls, often in the world's most dangerous places. I drafted post-conflict constitutions in Iraq and Kosovo. I worked proudly across five different administrations, with the unsung heroes and dedicated civil and foreign service officers from both USAID and the State Department, and hand in hand with global civil society leaders, other government and multilateral partners, and private sector entities. Of course, we were stronger together, building gender equity strategies, emergency response programs, and model processes that served as universal examples, positively changed the lives of millions of people globally, and demonstrated the better angels of the American spirit.

For years, I led the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues (S/GWI) as Acting Ambassador-at-Large in between political appointees overseeing women, peace, and security; economic empowerment; and the global fight against gender-based violence across every major humanitarian theater on earth. In 2025, the office was eliminated through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) process. The ambassadorship gone. The entire expert team dispersed. Nearly two decades of bipartisan institutional architecture, including funding erased, global gender leadership upended, and genuine trust, which had been established in the furthest corners of the earth, were shattered.

I will not pretend this does not have significant consequences. It does. Women are dying because of these choices. Girls as young as 9 are being married off because programs that protected them no longer exist. Survivors of violence are arriving at locked doors where safe houses used to be.

We must rise out of this fire together. These moments are what I teach my son to call a "PrOpportunity", to find the hope and opportunity, through the fire of the problem.

From the ashes of what has been destroyed, something more resilient, more locally-rooted, and more powerful must rise. The phoenix is a metaphor for transformation. What rises is never identical to what burned. It is stronger. It is wiser about its own vulnerability. And this time, it must be built by the women it serves.

What the flames have taken

To build wisely, we must name clearly what we have lost.

The Office of Global Women's Issues represented 18 years of sustained, bipartisan commitment to women as a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy. It anchored the International Women of Courage (IWOC) Awards, recognizing over 200 women from 90 countries who risked everything for justice and human dignity. It operationalized the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Act, which President Trump signed into law in 2017 with broad bipartisan support. Senator Rubio co-sponsored it. Representative Kristi Noem authored the House version. Mike Waltz co-chaired the WPS Caucus. The Joint Chiefs praised it as "a low-cost, high-yield uncontested advantage over our competitors." In April 2025, the Defense Department "ended" that program.

The flames also consumed Ivanka Trump's signature achievement from the first Trump Administration: stemming from the Women's Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative, leveraging the Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act signed in 2018 (WEEE Act), an effort I proudly worked with her on and launched in 2019 as a whole-of-government effort on women's economic empowerment. It reached 12 million women in its first year. It channeled over $1.6 billion in co-funded loans to women entrepreneurs in partnership with 13 countries. Ivanka wrote at the time that women's economic empowerment "shouldn't be viewed as a 'women's issue'" but as smart policy that benefits entire nations. She was right. The State Department and USAID funding that made those efforts no longer exist.

The human cost of all these cuts, including those from USAID and the UN, as estimated by development experts and journalists, is worth noting as we sift through the ashes. The cessation of UNFPA funding is projected to cause 34,000 additional preventable pregnancy-related deaths. Modeling projects 2.5 million additional child deaths from preventable causes between 2025 and 2030. Nearly $400 million in gender-based violence (GBV) programming has been terminated and the administration's Emergency Humanitarian Waiver explicitly excluded gender equality-related awards, formally designating the protection of women from violence as non-essential. Over 3 million women and girls have lost GBV services. Approximately 47.6 million women are projected to lose access to voluntary contraception. Child marriage and Female Genital Mutilation are also rising. These cuts were made despite the evidence showing that these efforts clearly supported the Administration's stated goals of promoting American prosperity, protecting Americans and stemming immigration, and preserving and promoting American strength.

A 2025 UN Women survey found 90 percent of women's organizations in crisis settings report operational disruptions. Nearly half face closure within six months. The Women's Refugee Commission's A Year of Harms catalogs the losses program by program. Refugees International's "No One Cares About Us Anymore" captures it in survivors' voices.

The fire has been devastating. And it has clarified everything.