Female Navy Officers Fear Career Ceiling After Hegseth Removes Women from Promotions

WASHINGTON — Female Navy officers say they fear their career advancement has been permanently capped after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed all three women from a Navy promotion list to one-star admiral, according to interviews with eight officers conducted by The Associated Press. The decision has left the Navy with zero women advancing to flag rank this year, despite women comprising roughly one-quarter of all Navy officers.

A Pattern of Intervention

The Navy had selected 31 captains for promotion to rear admiral (lower half) through its standard board process, which was approved by then-Navy Secretary John Phelan, other Navy leaders, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. Hegseth intervened to strike nine officers from the list, including all three women and two Black men, according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The resulting slate of 22 nominees contains no women — a first in recent memory for the Navy. The Pentagon has not offered any official rationale for the specific removals, and no misconduct allegations have been made against the affected officers.

This is not an isolated incident. Hegseth similarly intervened in an Army promotion list in March 2026, removing two women and two Black officers. The Wall Street Journal has also reported that Hegseth blocked nine senior Air Force officer promotions and delayed dozens more.

Voices of Concern

The female officers who spoke with the AP, all requesting anonymity out of fear of retribution, described a sense of betrayal and uncertainty about their futures. More junior officers said they saw the development as a sign that their careers would become politicized if they rose too far in the ranks. Some said it made them feel less valued within the military and wondered whether that was part of the intent.

“This is a decision that’s not being made by the U.S. Navy — it’s being made by the secretary of defense,” said Katherine Kuzminski, a researcher specializing in military recruiting and retention at the Center for a New American Security. Kuzminski noted that Hegseth’s growing interference in operational aspects such as promotions is creating “tension” about what “normal” will look like going forward.

Pentagon Defends Merit-Based Approach

Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, defended the promotions as merit-based, stating on social media that “military promotions are given to those who have earned them” and that the department “will never consider the color of a service member’s skin or their gender as a factor in promotions.”

Hegseth has long argued, without offering evidence, that women in the military benefit from preferential treatment and are not suited for combat roles. In a September 2025 speech to military leaders, he asserted that the Pentagon had promoted “too many uniformed leaders for the wrong reasons based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts.”

Broader Campaign Reshaping Military Leadership

The promotion intervention is part of a sweeping effort by Hegseth to reshape the military’s senior leadership. Since taking office, he has fired or sidelined nearly three dozen senior military officers. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) has noted that nearly 60% of those fired are women or Black, despite women and minorities accounting for just 20% of all generals and admirals.

Key firings include Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve as Chief of Naval Operations, who was dismissed without explanation shortly after Hegseth took office. He also fired two other female three-star admirals, Vice Adm. Yvette Davids — the first woman to lead the Naval Academy — and Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the Navy’s NATO representative.

Legal Questions and Implications

The removals have raised significant legal questions. Under 10 U.S.C. § 629, authority to remove officers from promotion lists rests with the President, not the Secretary of Defense, for flag officer ranks. A 1982 executive order delegating this authority to the Defense Secretary explicitly excludes flag and general officers, potentially meaning Hegseth acted without proper legal authority.

Mark Nevitt, a former Navy JAG officer and professor at Emory Law, wrote in a legal analysis that “the legal questions raised by these removals ultimately extend far beyond the careers of the officers involved. At stake is whether Congress’s carefully constructed promotion system can continue to serve its core purpose: ensuring that advancement to the military’s highest ranks is based on professional merit and lawful process rather than shifting political preferences.”

Impact on Retention and Readiness

Kuzminski warned that the rhetoric and actions surrounding women in the military “affects individual service member decision-making and it also affects family unit decision-making,” including whether people make a career of the military. She noted that following the monthslong hold on military promotions by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) during the Biden administration, surveys showed that partisan politics spilling into troops’ day-to-day lives affected their decision-making.

Jessica Ruttenber, a former Air Force pilot with the Women in Service Coalition, described the situation as a major setback. “It took decades to get here and we are undoing years, decades of progress for women,” she said. “It feels like one step forward, five steps back, and it’s gonna take a long time to recover from this.”

What’s Next

The Senate Armed Services Committee has authority to demand justification for each removal, and affected officers could potentially petition the Board for Correction of Naval Records or file suit under the Administrative Procedure Act. Meanwhile, the Navy has announced 29 promotions or assignments for admirals since December 2025 — none went to women. The last time the Navy promoted a woman from captain to rear admiral was June 2025.

As the debate over gender equality in the military intensifies, female officers and advocates are watching closely to see whether Congress will intervene to protect the integrity of the military promotion system — and whether the next generation of women will see a path to the highest ranks of the Navy.