Ousting of female leaders to have chilling effect at Pentagon

The unexplained removal of the first female head of the US Naval Academy last week is the latest in a string of top military women who have either been fired or re-delegated to largely invisible roles under the Trump administration, reports The Hill.

The ousting of Vice Adm. Yvette Davids from her post as the first female superintendent of the academy in Annapolis, makes her one of at least five senior female service members who have been moved out of their roles since January.

That trend, coupled with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s well-documented antipathy toward women in combat roles prior to becoming Pentagon chief, could have a chilling effect on women enlisting in the armed forces, experts say.

“It’s hard not to come to the conclusion that it’s going to weaken our military force by undermining the role of women who have become, I believe, an intrinsic part of our military capability,” said Leon Panetta, a former defense secretary in the Obama administration.

Panetta, who in 2013 announced that all combat roles would soon be open to women — a shift that eventually came in 2015 — told The Hill that the Trump administration’s removal of female leaders from the ranks, often without explanation, will have impacts on morale for female service members. 

“Just to remove commanders from their positions without cause sends a clear signal that this is not about merit, it’s not about performance, and it is about the fact that they’re women. It’s the only conclusion you can come to,” he said.

Davids was not outright fired, instead moved to deputy chief of naval operations, a senior position but largely out of the public eye. But the shift was only after she had led the academy for 18 months rather than the typical three- or four-year tenure of the school’s superintendent.

Nora Bensahel, a professor of civil-military relations at Johns Hopkins University, said the fact that she was removed from the Naval Academy ”really sends a message from the Pentagon that they do not think that a woman is qualified to be in charge of educating and training the next generation of fighters.”

 

 

 

 

Pete Hegseth to become US defense secretary

According to Reuters, Pete Hegseth narrowly secured enough votes on Friday to become the next US defense secretary, a major victory for President Donald Trump after fierce opposition from Democrats and even some Republicans to his controversial nominee.

Hegseth was confirmed after a 50-50 vote in the Senate, when Vice President JD Vance came to the chamber to break the tie in his role as president of the Senate, after three Republicans joined every Democrat and independent in voting no.

Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and decorated veteran, is promising to bring major changes to the Pentagon. But his leadership will be under intense scrutiny after a bruising confirmation review that raised serious questions about his qualifications, temperament and views about women in combat.

"We have not had a secretary of defense like Hegseth before," said Jeremi Suri, a University of Texas, Austin, history professor and presidential scholar.

Hegseth is the most divisive candidate to clinch the US military's top job, a position that has historically gone to candidates with deep experience running large organizations and who enjoy broad bipartisan support.

It was only the second time in history a cabinet nominee needed a tie-break to be confirmed. The first was also a Trump nominee, Betsy DeVos, who became secretary of education in 2017.

The three Republican senators who voted against Hegseth were Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell, was the party's leader in the chamber until this month.

McConnell said Hegseth had failed to demonstrate that he had the ability to effectively manage an organization as large and complex as the military. "Mere desire to be a ‘change agent’ is not enough to fill these shoes," McConnell said in a statement.

Hegseth will lead 1.3 million active-duty service members and the nearly one million civilians who work for the US military, which has a nearly US$ one trillion annual budget.

Hegseth told lawmakers that, up until this point, the largest group he had managed was 100 people and the largest budget was US$16 million.

His nomination was rocked by a series of accusations, including one this week by his former sister-in-law, who said he abused his second wife to the extent that she hid in a closet and had a code word to use with friends if she had to be rescued. Hegseth strongly denied the accusations and his wife had previously denied any physical abuse.