Hegseth dissolves women’s military committee over ‘divisive feminist agenda’

Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, ended an advisory committee on women in the armed services Tuesday, saying the committee was putting forth a “divisive feminist agenda”.

“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,” said Kingsley Wilson, press secretary for the Pentagon.

The defense advisory committee on women in the services started in 1951 and gathered information to provide recommendations to the defense secretary on issues related to women in the military.

Of those recommendations, “the majority … have been either fully or partially implemented,” a website for the committee says. “The Committee’s recommendations have been instrumental in effecting changes to law and policies pertaining to the service of women in the U.S. military.”

The Military Times reported earlier this year that the committee was one of 14 defense advisory committees flagged for potential termination, though many of those would require congressional approval to be disbanded.

The Pentagon previously told advisory committees they needed to show their worth, saying they needed to detail how they benefited the government and the country, and that they aligned with a “warrior ethos”, the Military Times reported.

Wilson shared a link on X to an article from the rightwing outlet the Daily Signal, which cites concerns the committee expressed about access to reproductive healthcare after the overturning of Roe v Wade as an example of the “feminist agenda” the committee was pushing.