Sept. 24 (UPI) — The Trump administration has terminated the nearly 75-year-old advisory committee aimed at encouraging and retaining women in the armed forces over accusations of promoting a “divisive feminist agenda,” Pentagon officials said.
The decision to disband the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services was made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a Tuesday statement on X.
“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,” she said.
Joel Valdez, Department of Defense acting deputy press secretary, defended the decision to disband DACOWITS, suggesting online that the committee was no longer needed.
“The panel, DACOWITS, existed during the last administration’s recruitment and retention crisis,” he said on X.
“With female recruitment numbers soaring under President Trump @SecWar’s leadership, it is clear that DACOWITS is not the reason women are joining the military.”
The Pentagon added: “We are cleansing the Department of wokeness.”
The committee was established in 1951, making it one of the Defense Department’s oldest advisory bodies. According to its website, it is composed of civilian women and men appointed by the Defense secretary to advise on matters and policies related to the recruitment, retention, employment, integration and well-being of women in the military.
Its disbandment comes as the Trump administration conducts a cultural overhaul of the military, in an effort to remove so-called left-leaning ideology.
Among the changes imposed by Hegseth are grooming standards to be clean-shaven and “neat in presentation,” banning transgender Americans from serving in the armed forces, tightening restrictions on media coverage and eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, among others.
It has also signaled a cultural transformation through promoting a so-called warrior ethos as counter to a “woke” culture as well as renaming military bases after Confederate soldiers who fought against the United States in the Civil War.
He has also attempted to rename the Department of Defense the department of war, a change that requires congressional approval.
During his confirmation hearings, Hegseth came under Democratic criticism for sexual misconduct, which he denied, as well as for saying that women should not serve in combat roles in the U.S. military.