The War Department has terminated the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, citing its “divisive feminist agenda.”

The 74-year-old advisory committee submits reports and recommendations to the war secretary each year, advising the Pentagon on its efforts to employ and retain women in the U.S. military. The Pentagon foreshadowed the committee’s termination earlier this year, when leadership proposed recommendations to sunset 14 different advisory groups, including the DACOWITS.

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“The Committee is focused on advancing a divisive feminist agenda that hurts combat readiness, while Secretary Hegseth has focused on advancing uniform, sex-neutral standards across the Department,” War Department press secretary Kingsley Wilson said.

The committee’s reports discuss the impact of the overturning of Roe v. Wade on reproductive healthcare, according to the Daily Signal, which reported on the committee’s termination.

The committee was founded in 1951 under Defense Secretary George Marshall to help support the military’s recruitment of women in the Korean War. It was briefly suspended in 2021 as part of a review of all the Pentagon’s advisory committees under former President Joe Biden’s defense secretary, Lloyd Austin.

A group of female veteran lawmakers reportedly wrote a letter to War Secretary Pete Hegseth in May, pleading for the War Department, President Donald Trump’s new name for the Defense Department, to keep the DACOWITS in place after they heard of its possible removal. The group of lawmakers included Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Mikie Sherill (D-NJ), and Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), according to the Military Times.

“We are concerned the disassembly of DACOWITS will exacerbate the gap in the collection of data regarding key policies to improve conditions for service women and reduce barriers to the recruitment and retention of women,” the group of lawmakers wrote in the letter.

Hegseth came under fire during his confirmation hearings for previous remarks he has made regarding the role of women in the military. He said his previous critiques came from situations where he had “seen standards lowered” for women.

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Hegseth issued a review of physical fitness standards for combat arms in March. This review also specified the terms of Hegseth’s ordered “sex-neutral standards” for combat arms occupations.

“All entry-level and sustained physical fitness requirements within combat arms positions must be sex-neutral, based solely on the operational demands of the occupation and the readiness needed to confront any adversary,” the March review document reads. “In establishing those standards, the Secretaries of the Military Departments may not establish standards that would result in any existing Service member being held to a lower standard.”