The first Trump administration wasted no time in weakening many rights and legal protections for women in the workplace, but it’s been outpaced by Trump ’s second administration — with two years left to go.
This executive war on the concept of gender equality is most visible across the federal agencies over which the administration has direct power. It is likely no coincidence that in the five Cabinet-level departments targeted for large-scale layoffs , women make up a majority of the workforce. Meanwhile, Black women — who comprise 12% of the federal workforce — have been disproportionately impacted by Department of Government Efficiency cuts, with one estimate putting their federal employment losses as high as 25%.
The administration has also targeted women in high positions. In the first three months of 2026, Trump fired four Cabinet members, all of them female . This continued a trend that began on the administration’s first day in power, when Trump fired Linda Fagan , the first female commandant of the Coast Guard, followed by Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy. Writes Karen Greenberg at Inkstick:
As it stands, there are no longer any four-star women generals in the military. And only this month, we learned that Secretary of War [Pete] Hegseth had reportedly removed two women from a promotion list to become one-star Army generals.
Outside of the Department of Defense, the resignations or firings of women in leadership positions have abounded across agencies ranging from the National Labor Relations Board to the Federal Trade Commission and the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] .
This widespread purge of women stands in stark contrast to their presence in office during the Biden years. Under President Joe Biden, women held just under 50% of all cabinet or cabinet-level positions. And let’s not forget Kamala Harris, the first female vice-president in American history. It’s worth noting as well that, under Biden, the Deputy Attorney General and the Deputy Secretary of Defense were both women.
Moving forward, it will be harder to track the administration’s efforts to make federal workplaces look more like “Mad Men” sets, because the Trump administration has ended the practice of making demographic data available; in March 2025, it removed current and historic diversity data from the Office of Personnel Management’s public website.
Perhaps the most naked embrace of misogyny is on display at the Pentagon, where last year Hegseth instituted new gender-neutral fitness standards in a clear attempt to reduce the number of women in combat service roles. (It backfired: More than 90% of female Marines have “ met or exceeded the standard .”) Hegseth has also stopped the promotions of both Black and female soldiers in an attempt to turn back the clock in an institution that has been historically resistant to integration.
At the same time, whether working for the federal government or the private sector, women must bear the brunt of skyrocketing costs of living. They are worrying about how Trump’s war against Iran will further increase fuel and heating costs in the coming winter; what Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and police will do to their families and communities; and what additional rights they and their daughters and sisters may lose thanks to Trump-appointed judges and Republican lawmakers.
For more on how Trump is halting and rewinding decades of progress, see these reports by Common Cause and the National Women’s Law Center .
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Trump World Is Determined to Man Up
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