When President Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gathered hundreds of military leaders last week in Virginia, he complained about various Pentagon practices that he says have made the American military “less capable and less lethal.”
Hegseth said: “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.” He added: “Any place where tried and true physical standards were altered, especially since 2015, when combat arms standards were changed to ensure females could qualify, must be returned to their original standard.”
Note: Female soldiers were not permitted in direct combat roles until the policy ban on their participation was lifted in 2013 — and fully implemented in 2015.
Hegseth told the top brass assembled at Quantico that the Pentagon’s policy moving forward will be to ensure that “every designated combat arms position returns to the highest male standard.” He added: “When it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral.”
This morning’s grandstanding at Quantico only solidified what we already know: @PeteHegseth continues to disparage and lie about women in the military.
He claimed the military needs to “return to the male standard” in combat jobs (of 1990!), but here’s the truth: there has… pic.twitter.com/yJb6ELi4Gv
— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) September 30, 2025
Hegseth added: “If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result.”
Former U.S. Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, the first woman to fly a combat mission for the Marine Corps, as well as the first to pilot the F/A-18 on a combat mission, objected to Hegseth’s comments. (Notably, McGrath is one of the “historic so-called firsts” Hegseth laments.)
McGrath wrote: “It’s fine to set standards however you want. That’s not the issue. What’s false is Hegseth’s continued narrative that combat standards were somehow lowered for women. They were not. And for the SecDef to lie about that is a slap in the face to all women who have served in combat roles.”
It’s fine to set standards however you want. That’s not the issue.
What’s false is Hegseth’s continued narrative that combat standards were somehow lowered for women. They were not. And for the SecDef to lie about that is a slap in the face to all women who have served in… pic.twitter.com/qdlqwf4XBa
— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) October 4, 2025
Retired Colonel Nicole Malachowski, a U.S. Air Force veteran and a combat fighter pilot (and the first woman pilot on the Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Squadron), agreed with McGrath and wrote: “So, this is true. Combat specialty standards have always been gender neutral. Ask me how I know. It’s weird he claims otherwise, and weirder none of his senior military leaders have been successful in correcting him. I’m sticking with facts.”
Malachowski clarified: “To be clear: the annual/semi-annual administrative PT test is a measure of general health, & is gender/age normed. Combat specialties have specific physical standards that are gender neutral. Cyber jobs are different than a Ranger, for example.”