The Pentagon is shuttering an advisory group focused on women in the military just weeks after reinstating it.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth decided to terminate the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, according to a post on X Tuesday from Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson. Military Times reported last week that the group would be reinstated after being paused earlier this year.
“The Committee is focused on advancing a divisive feminist agenda that hurts combat readiness, while Secretary Hegseth has focused on advancing uniform, sex-neutral standards across the Department,” Wilson wrote.
Since taking over the Pentagon, Hegseth has pledged to bring “sex-neutral standards” to the military services, pointing to fitness tests and other physical performance tests that have included scoring systems based on gender.
Before it was disbanded, the group met quarterly to discuss topics that focused on women-specific issues and others that affect troops across the services. In 2024, the group discussed mothers reintegrating to formations after pregnancy, women serving in submarines, domestic violence, fitness standards, eating disorders, recruitment barriers, and retention initiatives.
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In April 2024, the group visited the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island to do research for the Secretary of Defense’s office. A Navy public affairs officer covered the visit and wrote in a release that the committee has submitted more than 1,000 recommendations and as of 2023, approximately 95% of those policies or changes had been fully or partially adopted.
In a May letter to the Pentagon, democratic lawmakers expressed their concerns that the group’s closure would “exacerbate the gap” in collecting data to inform policies to improve recruitment and retention of women. Hegseth has held up the Army’s improved recruiting in 2024 as a major policy success, but much of that improvement was fueled by a significant increase in women recruits. Nearly 10,000 women signed up for active duty in 2024, an 18% increase from 2023, while the recruitment of men increased by just 8%, Military.com reported.
