Women Veterans Day Should Celebrate Merit, Not DEI

Written by Amber Smith | Published on June 12, 2026

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June 12 marks Women Veterans Recognition Day, the anniversary of President Harry Truman signing the Women's Armed Services Integration Act in 1948. That law did something radical for its time: it allowed women to serve as permanent, regular members of the United States Armed Forces, not just as nurses or wartime auxiliaries, but as full-fledged service members earning their place alongside the men who wore the uniform.

It was a milestone worth celebrating. But the way some in Washington want to celebrate it today would have horrified the women who fought to make it happen.

The women who pushed for the 1948 Act weren't asking for a quota. They weren't demanding that standards be lowered or that gender identity be factored into promotions. They were asking for one thing: the chance to compete. They wanted the opportunity to prove, on merit, in uniform, under the same pressure and the same expectations as their male counterparts, that they belonged. They earned that recognition the hard way. And for decades, the women who followed them did the same.

I know something about that. As an Army helicopter pilot who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, I never once wanted to succeed because of my gender. I wanted to succeed because I earned it, because I trained hard, prepared thoroughly, and performed when it counted. Every female veteran I've ever known felt exactly the same way. We didn't want to be handed anything. We wanted to earn everything.

That tradition stretches back further than 1948. Women have contributed to America's defense since the Revolutionary War, as spies, as nurses, as soldiers who disguised their identities just to serve. They were present at every major inflection point in this nation's military history, often without recognition, always without complaint. Today, more than two million women veterans carry that legacy. They've served in every conflict, flown combat aircraft, led troops in battle, run intelligence operations, and commanded at the highest levels, not because a diversity checklist demanded it, but because they earned it.

That is the story worth telling on Women Veterans Recognition Day. Not the story that DEI bureaucrats want to tell.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration turned the military into a laboratory for social experimentation. Diversity, equity, and inclusion offices proliferated across every branch. Recruiting materials prioritized identity over capability. Standards – physical, psychological, and professional – came under pressure from ideologues who confused lowering the bar with expanding opportunity. The result was a military that struggled to meet its recruiting goals, hemorrhaged trust with the American public, and signaled to the world that readiness had become secondary to representation.

This is not a celebration of women veterans. It is an insult to them.

The women who have served this country with distinction did not need DEI to get there. They needed the door to be open and the chance to prove themselves, and when they got it, they delivered. Brigadier General Anna Mae Hays became the first woman in U.S. history to achieve general officer rank in 1970, not because a quota demanded it, but because her record was undeniable. General Lori Robinson became the first woman to command a major unified combatant command in 2016, not because she checked a box, but because she was the best person for the job. These women are the model, not the diversity slide decks.

President Trump has begun to reverse the damage. The executive orders rolling back DEI mandates in the military are a defense of the very meritocratic standard that made female military excellence possible in the first place. The women who earned their place on the flight line, in intelligence, and at the command table didn't get there through identity politics. They got there through sweat, sacrifice, and performance. Restoring merit-based standards honors their service far more than any DEI program ever could.

Women Veterans Recognition Day should be exactly that: a recognition of what women have actually accomplished in uniform, earned the hard way, over more than two centuries of American history. It should be a day that inspires the next generation of young women to raise their right hand, work hard, and earn their place on merit. It should not be a vehicle for an ideology that undermines the very standards that made their predecessors great.

The women of 1948 didn't ask to be given anything. They asked for the chance to compete.

We should honor them by keeping that standard alive.

Amber Smith, a military advisor for the Coalition for Military Excellence, is a former U.S. Army combat helicopter pilot and former deputy assistant to the Secretary of Defense.