Hegseth shuts down group advising on women in the military

By Haley Britzky, CNN

(CNN) — The Pentagon is terminating a decades-old advisory group that offered recommendations on how to support women serving in the military, including past suggestions that women needed properly fitting body armor and appropriate health care.

Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a post on X on Tuesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had decided to eliminate the group, formally called the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, saying that the committee, “focused on advancing a divisive feminist agenda that hurts combat readiness.”

“Secretary Hegseth has focused on advancing uniform, sex-neutral standards across the Department,” Wilson said.

The termination of the committee, originally created in 1951 as women were just beginning to take on increased roles in the military, is the latest move by Hegseth who has placed intense scrutiny on Pentagon diversity initiatives.

Late Tuesday Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth added a response on X to Wilson’s post announcing the elimination of the committee saying, “Gender neutral, color blind, merit based.”

The group provided advice and policy recommendations to the Secretary of Defense based on visits to US military installations, focus group discussions with service members, discussions with subject matter experts and Pentagon representatives.

The recommendations that came from that research ranged from health care and physical fitness assessments to domestic abuse support, body armor and acquisition policy in military aviation. Many of those recommendations impact men as well as women — things like family planning or parental leave, which is a top reason both men and women cite for why they leave military service.

During the first term of President Donald Trump, in 2018, the committee recommended in a report to the defense secretary that he should require the military services to provide gear that fit women after reports of issues in the services.

“Properly fitting equipment is essential to the success of individual service members as well as the military as a whole,” the 2018 report said.

The work the committee did was largely dependent on the secretary with the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness providing research topics.

“Everything that the committee has done has improved the overall readiness of the entirety of the military,” Dr. Kyleanne Hunter, a Marine Corps veteran who was on the Committee on Women in the Services this year, told CNN. “Doing away with a committee like this is going to be a loss for loss for the country.”

Policies that “have very often gotten labeled as sort of women’s issues or women’s policies … also help men” according to research by the committee, Hunter said. “They help with the retention of men and the recruitment of men.”

The committee was included in a broader review of Defense Department advisory groups started earlier this year. The review itself wasn’t uncommon, Hunter said, but as time went on, meetings were postponed, and activities were suspended. As of Wednesday morning, committee members were still awaiting formal notification of next steps.

The move is the latest in a series by Hegseth that have eliminated efforts to increase the role of women in military leadership and planning.

In April, Hegseth announced he would be ending the Defense Department’s Women, Peace, and Security program calling it “yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative.” The program, designed to encourage commanders to consider the impacts of gender on local populations and forces when planning for operations, was enacted by President Donald Trump during his first term and championed by his daughter, Ivanka Trump.

Hegseth has also fired or replaced a number of women in leadership positions in a broader purge of military personnel, including former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whom he called a “DEI hire” in his 2024 book; Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, the first woman to serve as the superintendent of the Naval Academy; and Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, who served as the US military representative to NATO. The Trump administration also removed Adm. Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead the Coast Guard.

During his confirmation process, Hegseth came under fire for his repeated past comments about his beliefs that women should not serve in combat in the military.

“Women shouldn’t be in combat at all,” Hegseth said in an interview last year. “They’re life-givers, not life-takers. I know a lot of wonderful soldiers, female soldiers, who have served, who are great. But they shouldn’t be in my infantry battalion.”

He appeared to backtrack during his confirmation hearing when pressed by lawmakers, saying he respects “every single female service member that has put on the uniform,” and insisted standards have been lowered for women though he offered no evidence.

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