Probably for the best.
Under Hegseth, Women’s Share of Top Military Promotions Plunged This Year (by C.J. Robinson, The New York Times Upshot, Aug. 6, 2026).
A New York Times analysis finds that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s interventions have contributed to the lowest share of women among high-ranking military promotion nominations in at least 25 years. So far in 2026, only 8 of 201 candidates for senior posts (generals and admirals) are women—about 4%, less than half the average over the prior decade.
The article notes that absolute numbers of female nominees are small in any year, so percentages can swing with a few decisions (a similar dip below 5% occurred in 2012). More nominations could still occur later in the year. However, the share would be higher without Hegseth’s actions: he has blocked at least 40 high-ranking promotions from reaching the Senate in recent months. While some blocked candidates were white men, roughly half were women or people of color.
This marks a sharp drop from 2025 (Hegseth’s first year), when women reached a record-high percentage of such nominees. Hegseth has not publicly detailed individual reasons for the blocks but has argued that prior Pentagon diversity efforts weakened the military.
In contrast, lower-level promotions (e.g., to captain or major, which number in the thousands annually) show women receiving roughly 23% of nominations—higher than in any prior year in the Times analysis.
The piece frames the high-level decline as tied to Hegseth’s pattern of intervening in promotion lists, consistent with earlier reporting on specific cases involving Navy and Army officers.
DEI was eliminated.
Good
Hegseth is bent on building a serious fighting military and apparently, he is limiting women’s role in combat arms. They didn’t belong there when I served and they don’t belong there now. They can serve honorably, just not in a fighting capacity in combat arms. If that cuts off their path for promotion, so be it. It’s for the better general good in getting the mission done with the least casualties.
Women’s Share? They have no share. This is not ownership. The US has the only share. And they select the best for the job regardless of gender or race.
What is their share of KIA?
What happens when filtering out promotions made for political purposes.
Now return the schools and courses to their pre-female standards.
I’m good with that.
The NYT’s is crying that phony promotions are over in the military.
Perhaps the women aren’t performing as well as the men.
We need the best people in the most important jobs.
When sanity returns, there are many solid conservative women who can do the job.
Level playing field yields relevant results
I would like to see a 20 year trend. I assume they spiked under DEI and have returned to norms.
And I hope the same thing is happening to female judge nominations. They are absolutely unreliable in every case.
Probably for the best.
We will never face an enemy that places women in combat roles.
It is asking for failure on our part.
It is bad enough that young men come back from wartime with physical and mental injuries, but why subject young women to that as well?
Outstanding. There are 40 years of DEI error to correct. Full steam ahead.
We agree on something.
The NYT imagines that they could even come close to identifying a competent military officer? (Don’t understand me, I’ve worked with some superb women officers, two of which became generals - a well deserved promotion.)
But let’s get real. Mere journalists, having demonstrated what capabilities? Give me a break. Working for the NYT pretty much eliminates any of those clowns from being considered for any important job.