The Pentagon has decided to terminate the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. The Pentagon’s Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson posted on X on Sept. 23 to announce the dissolution of the group, citing the reason as DACOWITS being “focused on advancing a divisive feminist agenda that hurts combat readiness.”
This is one of many moves U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has made this year under the guise of eliminating military functions that facilitate inequality and ruin efficiency, but the cancellation of programs and groups that reach a hand toward those affected by bias and discrimination does not actually help the military; it furthers the gap between the privileged white male and military women.
DACOWITS consisted of civilians selected to help make decisions on matters involving women in the military. From integration to their treatment, research and policies were implemented to help women stand on equal ground as men in an already gender-divided institution.
Hegseth has made it clear that inclusive programs no longer have a place in the Armed Forces, saying, “We’ve said goodbye to the harmful effects of woke culture and so-called diversity, equity and inclusion programs,” and noting a change to base military operations “on performance, not immutable characteristics.”
Working within a society that suffers from deeply ingrained bias and discrimination, especially in the military, makes it impossible to ignore a person’s gender. By doing so, the services show a blatant disregard for the well-being of one-fifth of their members. This is not a pursuit of equality; it is blatant sexism.
In an address to military personnel in Quantico, Virginia, Hegseth said that combat roles will have the “highest male standard” imposed upon them. To try and disguise this as anything other than an exclusionary procedure — using males as the measure for a satisfactory military member — is a flagrant and poorly hidden misogynistic ploy.
Women will have to work much harder to achieve recognition, something they already had to do even with the defense of the DACOWITS. They should instead be evaluated based on female physicality. By forcing women to aim for physical male standards, the gap between men and women intentionally widens.
Without the DACOWITS to advocate for women in the services, Hegseth will readily be able to inflict a sex-based discriminatory agenda on the military. Since DACOWITS’s founding in 1951, they havemade over 1,100 recommendations to the Secretary of Defense advocating for equality measures in the services. Now, when Hegseth announces that women will not get inclusionary treatment, they will have no committee to defend them.
