Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recent decision to remove nine Navy officers, including all women, from a promotion list has sparked significant concern among female service members, who view the unusual intervention as a potential ceiling on their careers and a worrying precedent for future generations of military leaders.
The Navy had initially selected 31 sailors for promotion from captain to one-star admiral.
However, Hegseth intervened to strike nine individuals from this list, including three women and two Black men, according to a defense official who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive information.
As a direct consequence, no women will be promoted to the one-star admiral rank this year, despite military data from 2024 indicating that women constitute approximately one-quarter of all Navy officers and nearly one-third of the sea service’s midgrade ranks.
Eight female Navy officers, speaking anonymously to The Associated Press due to fears of retribution, expressed their dismay following Hegseth’s cuts.
More junior officers described the development as a sign that their careers could become politicized if they advanced too far, leading some to feel a limit on their potential for promotion and a sense of being less valued within the military.
They questioned whether this outcome was, in fact, intentional.
The Pentagon has not provided any rationale for why the women, or any of the other six individuals, were removed from the promotion list.
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesman, stated on social media this week that “military promotions are given to those who have earned them” and that the Pentagon “will never consider the color of a service member’s skin or their gender as a factor in promotions.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The Navy’s process for selecting officers for one-star rank promotions has historically been consistent and transparent. A promotion board, comprising officers, reviews eligible candidates’ records to identify the most qualified.
The board that initially selected the 31 officers was directed by then-Navy Secretary John Phelan, an appointee of President Donald Trump, to “recommend for promotion the best qualified officers within their respective competitive category.”
Phelan’s order, issued before his abrupt departure in April, specified that the board should consider an officer’s performance, competence, and character.
It also mandated “special consideration” for officers excelling in Indo-Pacific political-military affairs and operational contingency planning, aligning with the Trump administration’s National Defense Strategy focus on China.
Hegseth has previously argued, without presenting evidence, that women in the military receive preferential treatment and are unsuitable for combat roles.
In September, he told military leaders, “For too long, we’ve promoted too many uniformed leaders for the wrong reasons based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts,” asserting that this approach made the Pentagon “less capable and less lethal.”
Notably, Phelan’s order explicitly prohibited discrimination based on criteria such as race and sex, stating, “this guidance shall not be interpreted as requiring or permitting preferential treatment of any officer or group of officers on the grounds of race, religion, color, sex.”
The original list of 31 promotions had been approved by Phelan, other Navy leaders, and Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before reaching Hegseth, who then made the changes.
While Hegseth is within his rights to intervene, Katherine Kuzminski, a researcher specializing in military recruiting and retention at the Center for New American Security think tank, noted that “it’s just not the norm.”
Kuzminski highlighted that this decision originated from the Secretary of Defense, not the U.S. Navy, creating “tension” regarding what “normal” will entail moving forward, given Hegseth’s increasing interference in operational aspects of the military services.
Senior Navy officers expressed concerns about the message this sends to the next generation of sailors.
Beyond the recent promotion cuts, Hegseth, shortly after taking office, fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the service’s top officer and the first woman to hold the position, without explanation.
He has since also dismissed two other female three-star admirals without providing a rationale.
Some officers acknowledged the difficulty of encouraging female sailors to remain in the Navy amidst these developments. Kuzminski suggested that the rhetoric and actions surrounding women in the military “affects individual service member decision-making and it also affects family unit decision-making,” influencing whether individuals pursue a military career.
She also referenced surveys following the monthslong hold on military promotions by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., during the Biden administration, which indicated that partisan politics spilling into troops’ daily lives impacted their career decisions.
One officer noted that this impact extends beyond women, with male sailors in her unit expressing hesitation about the growing politicization of simply following orders from previous administrations.
