|
As 2025 winds to a close, Lunar looks back at key events that impacted women and the LGBTQ community.
Power players
This year has seen a significant increase in the number of women in senior positions across finance and politics.
According to a survey released in October, Hong Kong’s financial sector saw growth in the number of women taking up senior positions and board directorships in recent years. Women held 45 per cent of senior leadership roles – namely, CEOs, managing directors and executives within three reporting levels below – in banks, asset management firms, insurance companies and fintech firms.
In the world of politics, Ireland and Japan were among the countries that elected women (Catherine Connolly and Sanae Takaichi respectively) as heads of government.
However, there were also cases where the reverse happened. Notably, the female leaders of Thailand (Paetongtarn Shinawatra) and Bangladesh (Sheikh Hasina) were ousted following mass protests.
Digital sex crimes
In July, the University of Hong Kong was rocked by claims that a student had used artificial intelligence (AI) to generate explicit images of his classmates. The case came to light when three victims made their accusations against the student public.
However, he could not be held legally responsible, as the city’s regulations covered acts of voyeurism and the publication or distribution of images, rather than their creation.
Celebrating firsts
In November, India celebrated a historic victory at the 2025 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup. The win – the country’s first – marks a landmark moment, not just for the team, but for women’s sport across the nation.
In April, singer Katy Perry and five other women launched into space on a Blue Origin rocket, marking the first all-female space flight in more than 60 years.
Partial victories
Malaysian mothers won a bittersweet victory in March after a court settlement granted citizenship rights to their overseas-born children aged 18 and younger but excluded adult children, leaving many still in legal limbo. Gender discrimination was at the centre of the four-year court battle, brought by a family-rights group and several mothers against the government to allow automatic Malaysian citizenship for their foreign-born children.
Hong Kong’s LGBTQ community celebrated with the proposal of a system in July to recognise same-sex partnerships in accordance with a landmark court ruling two years ago and grant them some rights. However, the bill was voted down by lawmakers in September.
Cracking down
In November, the vulnerability of safe digital spaces for China’s LGBTQ community was underscored by the abrupt removal of the country’s two most popular same-sex dating apps – Blued and Finka – from mainland app stores under government orders. Conservative voices say such groups risk creating conflict in society and are speeding up population decline.
The disappearance of the two apps comes as authorities crack down on “gender antagonism” in areas such as stand-up comedy, video games, social media and film.
Signing off,
Lunar team
This is our final issue of the year. Thank you for supporting our newsletter, we’ll be back on January 16. To catch up on news about women and gender in Asia, click here or follow us on Facebook.
| 
.png)
