Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that he ended the department’s Women, Peace & Security program.
“WPS is yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops — distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING,” Hegseth said Tuesday morning on X. “WPS is a UNITED NATIONS program pushed by feminists and left-wing activists. Politicians fawn over it; troops HATE it.”
Hegseth said the Defense Department will comply with the program’s minimum requirements under federal statute and then seek to end it entirely during the appropriations process.
Congress passed the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017, which called for the United States to be a “global leader” in the promotion of “the meaningful inclusion of women in conflict prevention, management, and resolution, and post-conflict relief and recovery efforts.”
President Donald Trump signed the bill into law during his first term, and two years later, his administration released its Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security in 2019.
In a follow-up post, the secretary added, “The woke & weak Biden Administration distorted & weaponized the straight-forward & security-focused WPS initiative launched in 2017. So—yes—we are ending the ‘woke divisive/social justice/Biden (WPS) initiative.’ Biden ruined EVERYTHING, including ‘Women, Peace & Security.’”
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the 19th Annual International Women of Courage Awards Ceremony that he was proud to have co-sponsored the legislation during his time in the Senate.
“President Trump also signed the Women, Peace, and Security Act, a bill that I was very proud to have been a co-sponsor of when I was in the Senate, and it was the first comprehensive law passed in any country in the world, the first law passed by any country anywhere in the world, focused on protecting women and promoting their participation in society,” Rubio said.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote the bill in 2017 when she was a representative from South Dakota alongside Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).
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During Hegseth’s brief tenure as defense secretary, he has focused extensively on reshaping the military away from the previous administration’s efforts toward diversity, equality, and inclusion. He has repeatedly said that “DEI is dead at DOD.”
The secretary has standardized the requirements for service regardless of gender, has attempted to bar transgender people from enlisting and kick those already in the military out, and is trying to bring back service members who were separated from the service for refusing to take the coronavirus vaccine.
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