Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s assertion Tuesday that newly proposed military fitness standards may exclude women from certain combat roles has reignited fears about his approach to women in the armed forces.

In a highly unusual address to hundreds of the military’s top leaders in Quantico, Va., Hegseth declared new directives to ensure every combat position “returns to the highest male standard” of their service’s physical fitness test.

“If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it,” he said, though he stressed that the military will continue to welcome women into its ranks. 

“I don’t want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape, or in combat units with females who can’t meet the same combat arms physical standards as men,” he said. “This job is life and death. Standards must be met.”

The comments which hearken back to statements he made last year that nearly upended his nomination sparked fresh concerns that Hegseth seeks to force out female troops under the guise of combat readiness. They also perplexed female veterans, as combat roles are already subject to gender-neutral standards. 

“It seems to me that really that what he’s asking for, what he wants to happen, is already how it works,” said Elisa Cardnell, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Service Women’s Action Network and a Navy veteran who served aboard a destroyer in the Persian Gulf.

“Women have been allowed to be in combat roles, in all roles now, since 2016. In that time, those standards have always been gender neutral for combat roles,” she added. “They were never lowered when women were offered the opportunity to join those career paths.” 

Only a handful of women have joined the Army’s elite Green Berets, while there has yet to be a female Navy SEAL or Marine Raider, though the first woman completed training for the Navy’s special operations force in 2021. But women have joined combat units across the military, meeting the same standards as men for jobs such as infantry, armor, pararescue and other roles.

Before joining the Trump administration, Hegseth had advocated against women serving in combat roles, but during his confirmation process he assured senators that he would support women serving in all roles in the military. 

Air Force veteran and House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) said she had previously spoken in person with Hegseth, challenging him to explain “what he means by ‘standards,’ and whether or not that means that women would be excluded from different positions.” She noted that at the time “he was terribly evasive.”

“You can’t have it both ways. You can’t have standard standards. And then male standards, either it’s a standard or it’s not,” she said Tuesday on CNN. 

“Where he and I do agree is that if people have to meet certain standards, they should have to meet certain standards. But he is very much obviously reducing the possibility that women will continue to be part of the armed services in those positions,” she added. 

“What I would ask of him is, what happens to those women who are currently there right now? What have you said to them about their ability to continue with their career?”

And Rep. Mikie Sherrill (N.J.), a Navy veteran and the Democratic nominee for governor of New Jersey, said it was clear Hegseth was looking to force women out of certain roles without regard for actual lethality. 

“Secretary Hegseth has said he does not believe women should serve in combat. Now he is trying to make that happen by escalating his war on women in the military, despite presenting no evidence that women cannot ably serve in combat positions,” she wrote in a post to the social platform X.

Hegseth’s latest comments are in line with his well-documented antipathy toward women in combat roles prior to becoming Pentagon chief. 

In his book titled “The War on Warriors,” released last year, he allowed that women have performed well in support roles in combat, but wrote “women in the infantry women in combat on purpose is another story.” 

“Dads push us to take risks. Moms put the training wheels on our bikes. We need moms. But not in the military, especially in combat units,” he wrote.

A week before he was named as President Trump’s pick for Defense secretary, Hegseth said he was “straight up just saying that we should not have women in combat roles” while on a podcast.

At his nomination hearing, Hegseth said that he wasn’t against women in combat jobs, but suggested without evidence that standards for such roles have been lowered to meet diversity quotas a claim that past Defense officials challenged.

Since being installed at the Pentagon, he has steadily fired a string of female leaders, including Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first female chief of naval operations; Air Force Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short, who served as the senior military assistant to the secretary of Defense; and Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the sole female flag officer on NATO’s Military Committee. Vice Adm. Yvette Davids was also moved from her post as the first female superintendent of the academy in Annapolis, Md.

All women have now been removed from the military’s top jobs. There are no female four-star officers on active duty and none in pending appointments for four- or three-star roles.

Hegseth “continues to disparage and lie about women in the military,” Amy McGrath, a former fighter pilot and Democratic Senate candidate who was the first woman to fly a combat mission for the Marine Corps, wrote Tuesday on X.

“He claimed the military needs to ‘return to the male standard’ in combat jobs (of 1990!), but here’s the truth: there has never been a separate male and female standard. When women entered combat roles, one standard was set, and we’ve been meeting it ever since,” she said.