President-elect Donald Trump‘s Defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth, was
grilled during his confirmation hearing over past comments he made about women in the military.
Hegseth, a U.S. combat veteran and former Fox News host, said in November 2024 that “we should not have women in combat roles” and wrote last year that “moms” should not be in the military, “especially not in combat units.” Hegseth was confronted with some of these quotes by senators on Tuesday as they examined his suitability to lead the Pentagon.
Hegseth said at the hearing that women “continue to make amazing contributions across all aspects of our battlefield.” However, one senator pointed out what they saw as the dissonance between Hegseth’s previous comments and Trump’s legislated commitment to promoting “the participation of women in conflict prevention and peacebuilding.”
Newsweek reached out to the Trump transition team and Pete Hegseth via email for comment.
Pete Hegseth (C) at the U.S. Capitol for his confirmation hearing on January 14. Hegseth faced probing questions and was scrutinized over comments he made about women in the military. Pete Hegseth (C) at the U.S. Capitol for his confirmation hearing on January 14. Hegseth faced probing questions and was scrutinized over comments he made about women in the military. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Democratic New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen referenced the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Act of 2017, signed by Trump in October 2017, which made the U.S. the first government in the world “with a comprehensive law recognizing women’s essential contributions to efforts that promote peace, maintain security, and prevent conflict,” according to the State Department.
“This is a law that was signed during President-elect Trump’s first term,” Shaheen said.
“It was legislation that I sponsored with Republican Senator [Shelley Moore] Capito of West Virginia. It was co-sponsored by Marco Rubio, the nominee to be the president-elect’s secretary of state, who was led in the House of Representatives by Kristi Noem, the president-elect’s nominee to be the secretary of Homeland Security.
“It mandates that women be included in all aspects of our national security, including conflict resolution and peace negotiations, and at the Department of Defense, it has been the law for eight years under both the Trump and Biden administrations.
“The DOD has incorporated women throughout its decision-making as a result.
“Every single combatant commander across two administrations has told this committee that this law and its implementation at the Department of Defense provides them a strategic advantage operationally.
“Based on your comments, it appears that the example that you would like to set, not only for women in this country but for women across the globe—50 percent of the world’s population—as the prospective nominee to lead the most combat credible military in the entire world, is that women should not have an equal opportunity in our military.”
Asked if he would commit to preserving the WPS Act and funding for related programs, Hegseth said he would “commit to reviewing that program and ensuring it aligns with America First national security priorities.”
“And if it advances American interests, it’s something, uh, we would advance. If it doesn’t, it’s something we would look at,” he added.
“Well, since former President Trump signed the law, I hope that he agrees with you,” Shaheen replied.
What Did The Women, Peace, and Security Act Do?
Signed into law in 2017, the bipartisan WPS Act was designed to increase the participation of women in efforts to prevent terrorism and global conflict.
“Simply put, when women are at the negotiating table, peace is more likely,” said former House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce in 2017.
“The benefits of women’s participation—and the risks of their exclusion—in all aspects of governance and peacemaking are too great to ignore.”
As mandated under the WPS, the Trump administration released an implementation strategy in 2019. Although the strategy did not explicitly mention employing or retaining women in infantry or combat roles, it did state that it promoted “meaningful inclusion of women in processes to prevent, mediate, resolve, and recover from deadly conflict or disaster.”
One of the strategic objectives to be achieved by 2023 was that: “Women are more prepared and increasingly able to participate in efforts that promote stable and lasting peace.” A broader goal was to “Increase women’s meaningful participation in political, civic, and military processes to prevent and resolve conflicts, prepare for disasters, and set conditions for stability during post conflict and post-crisis efforts.”
A 2020 White House “Fact Sheet” repeated the Trump administration’s commitment to “leading the global coalition to advance the role women play in peace and security globally,” boasted Trump’s signing of the law, and quoted Donald Trump saying: “Nations that empower women are much wealthier, safer, and much more politically stable.”
The Department of Defense said in July 2020 that under the act, it had, among other goals, “engaged more than 50 partner nations” to “share best practices on the recruitment, employment, development, retention, and promotion of women in military forces.”
Subsequent WPS strategy has set more explicit goals encouraging women toward military employment, including combat roles.
A Department of Defense 2024 memorandum recognizes that one of the Pentagon’s objectives under the most recent WPS strategy released during the Biden administration was to “maintain and strengthen initiatives that promote gender equity and equality and advance the recruitment, retention, promotion, and meaningful participation of women across the Total Force.”
Hegseth’s Comments On Women In Combat
Hegseth was repeatedly quizzed during Tuesday’s hearing about his views on women in the military, as senators quoted comments he made on a podcast in November 2024 and in a book he wrote last year.
On The Shawn Ryan Show, Hegseth said, “I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective, it hasn’t made us more lethal, it has made fighting more complicated.”
He added: “As the disclaimer for everybody out there, we’ve all served with women and they’re great. It’s just our institutions don’t have to incentivize that in places where traditionally, not traditionally, over human history, men in those positions are more capable.”
Before this, Hegseth had argued that his position was about maintaining the standards of military units.
He said: “You had women truck drivers…or mechanics on these convoys in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then they’d be ambushed or hit by IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and suddenly you have women in combat—that’s maybe a modern reality in a 360 battlefield, that’s different than intentionally saying ‘we’re gonna put women into combat roles so they will do the combat roles of men,’ knowing that we’ve changed the standards in putting them there, which means you’ve changed the capability of that unit.
“And if you say you haven’t, you’re a liar. Because everybody knows, between bone density and lung capacity and muscle strength, men and women are just different.”
“I’m OK with the idea that you maintain the standards where they are, for everybody, and if there’s some hard-charging female that meets that standard, great,” Hegseth added.
In a December 2024 appearance on the Fox News show Hannity, Hegseth said some of his comments had been “misconstrued.”
“I also want an opportunity to clarify comments that have been misconstrued that I somehow don’t support women in the military,” Hegseth said.
“Some of our greatest warriors, our best warriors, are women who served, raised their right hand to serve this country and love our nation and want to defend that flag, and they do it every single day around the globe.”
In his 2024 book The War on Warriors, Hegseth said, “Dads push us to take risks. Moms put the training wheels on our bikes. We need moms. But not in the military, especially not in combat units.”
