By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday canceled a program that sought to increase the role of women in national security sectors that was first signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2017.
In his first term, Trump signed into law the Women, Peace and Security Act, which supported the participation of women in preventing and resolving conflict, countering violent extremism and building post-conflict stability.
On Tuesday, Hegseth said he was proud to have ended the 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 on X.
“(Department of Defense) will hereby executive the minimum of WPS required by statute, and fight to end the program for our next budget,” he added. “GOOD RIDDANCE WPS!”
He later wrote a post saying, without evidence, that the prior administration of Democratic President Joe Biden had “distorted & weaponized the straight-forward & security-focused WPS initiative launched in 2017.”
Hegseth has taken aim at diversity, equity and inclusion at the Pentagon since he took office.
With Hegseth as defense secretary, the Pentagon has ended commemorations of identity month celebrations, like Black History Month, while some books have been removed from the Naval Academy, including Maya Angelou’s memoir.
The WPS program was promoted by the first Trump administration.
“This is the first legislation of its kind globally, which makes the United States the first country in the world with a comprehensive law on WPS,” a 2019 White House document said.
Republican Marco Rubio, then a senator and now Trump’s secretary of state, was a co-sponsor of the bill, as was Kristi Noem, the current secretary of homeland security. Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security advisor, was a founding member of the WPS congressional caucus when he was a lawmaker.
“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,” Rubio said earlier this month at the State Department.
“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 added.
The United Nations Security Council first adopted a resolution on women, peace and security in October 2000 and has held an annual meeting on the issue since.
When asked about Hegseth’s remarks, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said U.N. efforts were based on the resolution unanimously adopted 25 years ago.
“It’s no secret that women remain largely on the periphery of formal peace processes and decision making, which is not good for the cause of peace,” he told reporters.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Rosalba O’Brien)
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