On September 17, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo which directed the “formal disestablishment” of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS).
This comes despite a September 8 memo which called for the gradual return to service of DACOWITS, along with 39 other advisory groups. No reason for Hegseth’s sudden change of mind was presented.
“After further review, Secretary Hegseth has decided to terminate the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services,” Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said in the statement. “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.”
MilitaryTimes
There is no evidence that DACOWITS served a social or political agenda, let alone a “feminist” one. Its most recent public meeting, which was in December 2024, discussed largely average military affairs, such as “permeability for transfers between services…” Though women’s issues were addressed, such as menopause, the discussions revolved around combat readiness, something Hegseth has claimed to prioritize.
In its 75-year history, the over 1,000 recommendations made by DACOWITS had a 97% full or partial adoption rate up to 2019. DACOWITS was not “woke,” but it did address the unique needs of women in the armed forces, such as sexual assault, of which there has been tens of thousands of cases. There is now one less tool to address this problem.
