Hegseth disbands 74-year-old Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, citing 'divisive feminist agenda'

On September 23, 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally disbanded the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS), ending a Pentagon advisory panel that had operated continuously since 1951. The action was carried out under a disestablishment memo Hegseth signed on September 17. A Pentagon spokesperson justified the termination by stating the committee "is focused on advancing a divisive feminist agenda that hurts combat readiness."

DACOWITS was established in 1951 by Secretary of Defense George Marshall to advise Pentagon leadership on recruiting, retaining, and supporting women in the military. Over 74 years and through administrations of both parties, the committee submitted more than 1,100 formal recommendations to successive secretaries of defense. The committee operated under the Federal Advisory Committee Act; its dissolution required no congressional action and could be carried out by the secretary by directive.

The disbanding fits within a pattern documented across Hegseth's first months as secretary. In March 2025, Hegseth issued a blanket suspension of all Pentagon advisory committees, purging their members pending review. In the months that followed, the department ordered ideological reviews of senior service colleges, removed female candidates from flag officer promotion lists, and forced the Army Chief of Staff into early retirement. The DACOWITS disbanding follows the same logic: an advisory structure that had operated across more than a dozen administrations was terminated not on operational grounds but because its subject matter — women's recruitment, retention, and support — was framed as ideologically incompatible with the administration's stated priorities.