SECNAV Del Toro Delivers Remarks at the 11th Annual Women, Peace, and Security Symposium

Good morning, everyone!

It is wonderful to be with you in Newport, Rhode Island to speak at the 11th Annual Women, Peace, and Security Symposium.

Dr. Johnson, thank you for that kind introduction and for your support of our military and civilian leaders at every level.

Madam President, thank you for your presence this morning and for your work furthering this important program. Women, Peace, and Security greatly affects all of us in this room and all of us around the world.

Thank you, Ambassador Middendorf, for joining us today, and for your decades of public service to our Nation—including your time at the helm of our Department as the 62nd Secretary of the Navy.

Ambassador Dugolli, I extend my gratitude to you for your service as Ambassador of Kosovo to the United States.

And I thank all of you in the audience this morning for being here today.

As Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently stated at the Reagan National Defense Forum: “Today's U.S. military is an extraordinary gathering of volunteers—brave men and women of every race, color, and creed. America's greatest strategic asset has always been the talents of the American people. And we are stronger when we welcome every qualified patriot who is eager to serve. That's not just a matter of national principle. It's a matter of national security.”

I could not agree more.

We cannot afford to disenfranchise over half of our population and talent pool, and we must promote and institutionalize women’s meaningful participation in all spaces and processes where national security decisions are made.

From our Nation’s earliest days, women have proudly served at the front lines of armed conflict.

During the Revolutionary War, women supported our Continental Army as nurses, seamstresses, cooks, and spies.

During the Civil War, women stepped forward to serve as volunteer nurses aboard Union Navy hospital ships.

In 1908, the United States Navy established the Navy Nurse Corps, and the first women to join were known as the “Sacred Twenty.”

Lenah Sutcliff Higbee was one of those initial twenty women to qualify for service as a Navy nurse.

In 1911, she became the second Superintendent of the United States Navy Nurse Corps and guided the Corps through the First World War.

For her actions, Chief Nurse Higbee was awarded the Navy Cross—the first woman to receive the award.

Today, we honor her legacy through the naming of USS Lenah Sutcliff Higbee (DDG 123), a formidable warship which was commissioned on May 13th, 2023, and will soon deploy and serve as a powerful deterrent against all those who mean us harm.

And women began their service in the Marine Corps during the First World War.

In 1918, Opha May Johnson became one of the first 305 women accepted for duty in the Marine Corps Reserve. These women filled clerical billets and served at recruiting stations throughout the United States.

Hundreds of other women subsequently enlisted in the Marine Corps, contributing significantly to the service's combat readiness.

Though women were issued separation orders from the Corps on July 30, 1919, upon completion of the war, women continued serving in the Navy Nurse Corps during the interwar period.

And during World War II, women again answered the call to serve.

With the establishment of the Women Accepted for Voluntary Service (WAVES) in 1942 and the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve in February 1943, women performed a wide variety of assignments to support the war effort.

These legacies of trailblazing service laid the groundwork for historic milestones, such as the 1948 Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, which legally granted women the right to serve in the U.S. military as permanent, regular members.

One such woman who played an integral role in the Act’s passage was Captain Joy Bright Hancock, who began her service to the Nation as a Yeoman during the First World War.

However, the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act also restricted the total number of women able to serve, the kinds of jobs they could hold, and the ranks they could achieve.

In his “Z-Gram” dated 7 August 1972—52 years ago— then-Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo Zumwalt said: “There has been much discussion and debate with respect to equal opportunity for women in our country over the past few years. My position with respect to women in the Navy is that they have historically played a significant role in the accomplishment of our naval mission. However, I believe we can do far more than we have in the past in according women equal opportunity to contribute their extensive talents and to achieve full professional status. Moreover, the imminence of an all volunteer force has heightened the importance of women as a vital personnel resource.”

It was through the persistent advocacy of service members and congressional leaders that the United States has gradually changed its laws over time, opening more doors for women service members.

This includes allowing women to attend service academies, with the first class of women graduating in 1980, and also the 1993 repeal of limiting women’s service on combatant ships.

Two decades later, in 2013, the Direct Ground Combat Definition and Assignment Rule was lifted, allowing women to serve the Navy in combat roles on any operational platform.

And today, all career fields of our services are open to women, as are the opportunities to serve and lead at every level—from ships, submarines, and squadrons, to air wings, strike groups, naval bases, service academies, combatant commands—and indeed even the entire United States Navy and Marine Corps.

Our Navy and Marine Corps are filled with powerful female role models who will inspire future generations of service men and women.

Women like:

• Lieutenant Amanda Lee, who became the first female jet demonstration pilot for the Blue Angels in 2022;
• Lieutenant Commander Amber Cowan, who became the first female submarine executive officer in 2023;
• Vice Admiral Yvette Davids, the first Hispanic American woman to command a Navy warship, and now, the first woman Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy;
• Major General Lorna Mahlock [MAHL-ick] who made Corps history in 2022 by becoming the first Black woman to serve as a two-star general and now serves as Commander, Cyber National Mission Force;
• Lieutenant General Roberta Shea, who currently serves as the first woman to lead Marine Forces Command and is our most senior female Marine; and
• Private First Class Christina Fuentes Montenegro, Private First Class Julia Carroll, and Private First Class Katie Gorz, the first three female Marines to graduate from the Marine Corps’ enlisted infantry training course.

These are but only some of our Nation’s most heroic and brave warfighters.

The Department of the Navy has already opened all career fields to women as a vital step toward creating a more effective, inclusive, and forward-thinking Fleet and Force which values the contributions of all its members.

From the depths of the ocean to the skies above, and the rugged terrain of the battlefield, women today fill our most vital roles.

They have commanded warships from destroyers to aircraft carriers, and now lead at the highest levels of the Corps.

We are here at the Naval War College to challenge ourselves.

The Naval War College deepens the intellectual engagement of leaders and warriors to achieve cognitive advantage—for our graduates to possess the mental strength, flexibility, and creativity to out-think our competitors in all domains.

Our adversary authoritarian regimes of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea endeavor to undermine western democracies and rewrite accepted rules of order.

These adversaries, along with Afghanistan and the gangs controlling Port-au-Prince, maintain power using a gender script that involves the repression of women.

And, in response, women are challenging the prescribed gender roles.

Now it the time for the Department of Defense to consider gender as a dimension of competition with our adversaries.

Research clearly and strongly shows us that democratic backsliding towards authoritarian regimes is typically accompanied by gender-based harassment and the undermining of women’s rights.

Women have been, and will continue to be, decisive when it comes to countering authoritarian expansionism, and any wise strategy will incorporate women more fully into deterrence.

The concept of gender as a domain must be understood for the US to become more effective in stressing our adversaries.

Practicing Women, Peace, and Security shapes perceptions—not only our own, but also the populations of neutral and adversary states.

Think of WPS as a strategic enabler. WPS shapes the support of oppressed people away from their authoritarian regime—and towards the US.

In 1995, in an address at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, then First-Lady Hillary Clinton declared that “human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.”

In 2000, the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was passed, the first global recognition of the disproportionate impact of conflict on women and girls and their necessary role in preventing and resolving it.

And on October 6, 2017, the Trump Administration signed the WPS Act of 2017 into law.

Yes, on October 6, 2017, the Trump Administration signed the WPS Act of 2017 into law.

It established that WPS is the policy of the United States. We promote the meaningful participation of women in all aspects of overseas conflict prevention, management, resolution, security processes, and decision-making institutions.

The law instructs the Secretary of Defense to ensure that personnel receive training in security initiatives which specifically address the importance of meaningful participation by women in all roles.

The WPS Act of 2017 also calls on men to be partners in support of the meaningful participation of women.

The DoD’s 2020 WPS Strategic Framework and Implementation Plan helps the DoD build a more lethal force by:

• providing the tools necessary to reduce operational risk in a multi-domain environment,
• recruit and fully leverage a diverse and innovation fighting force,
• strengthen alliances and attract new partners by demonstrating US commitment to human rights and women’s empowerment, and
• reform the DoD for greater performance and affordability by developing more effective strategies to mitigate risks and optimize mission success.

These policies and guiding frameworks have enabled the DoD to utilize WPS to strengthen existing international partnerships, expand its network of potential allies, create more opportunities to compete through cooperation, provide opportunities to expand the US sphere of influence through cooperation with adversarial partners, and translate military success into longer-term policy goals.

The first pillar of WPS—participation—or increasing women’s representation and leadership in national security decision-making processes—which includes the military—is one which the leaders in this room can do something about.

President Osmani-Sadriu often highlights the Republic of Kosovo’s dedication to the Rule of Law. This commitment ensures equal rights and opportunities for all citizens, including equal representation in government and the military.

And I am heartened by progress made around the world.

Since 1970, Latin America has been led by more than a dozen female Presidents, demonstrating a willingness to overcome obstacles to political representation.

Just this year, Mexico elected its first female President, Claudia Sheinbaum.

However, the population of the United States is over half female, yet, in the 119th Congress, only 150 women, or 28% of all members—will serve in the House of Representatives, while 24 women will serve in the Senate.

46 women currently serve as United States Ambassadors—27% of our 173 embassies around the world.

And women represent about 20% of our Navy and just less than 10% of our Marine Corps.

Women belong in every room where decisions are made, and that includes in combat roles.

And it is important to ensure that women’s perspectives are represented and amplified—because issues and concerns of women are different than those of men.

However, men, too, have a responsibility to champion these causes to create a truly inclusive and equitable approach to security and peacebuilding.

The inclusion of women in military leadership and combat roles is not just a matter of equality—it is essential to enhancing military readiness.

A diverse range of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences equips our military with a decisive and unparalleled edge in lethality and effectiveness.

Women, Peace, and Security initiatives also open dialogue and engagement opportunities between the United States and other like-minded nations.

In Ukraine, women have been at the front lines of combat—over 60,000 women have served and supported its military since Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion in 2022.

These women warfighters have greatly enhanced the strength and unity of Ukrainian forces, and their contributions to the fight have increased their overall lethality.

In multiple contested areas around the globe—including Iraq and Afghanistan—we’ve learned that including women officers and non-commissioned officers in units such as Female Engagement Teams allows our forces to engage and access key groups within the local population, to gain additional perspectives on the security situation, and better assess the needs of the group. 

When speaking to local women, FETs gained more accurate and comprehensive intelligence, while also reducing barriers to winning trust in the community.

These observations are applicable across the spectrum of conflict and around the globe.

And the impact of women in the military fulfilling combat and leadership roles is undeniable, as evidenced by our own successes in the Red Sea.

In November of last year, Commander Shelby Nikitin led the crew of USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116), successfully defending maritime shipping lanes in the Red Sea against Houthi drone attacks.

Just this month, USS Stockdale (DDG 106), under the command of Commander Lauren Johnson, has successfully defeated numerous Houthi-launched weapons in the area.

And I can think of no one better to lead the United States Navy during this time of conflict than our Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Lisa Franchetti.

Admiral Franchetti’s leadership, perspective, and warfighting and command experience are essential for our Nation at this critical moment.

Her extensive experience and extraordinary vision, combined with her strong moral compass and unwavering dedication to service, made her the most qualified individual to serve as Chief of Naval Operations.

And as we realize our vision for the future, we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that our Navy and Navy Marine Corps are adequately equipped, trained, and positioned to meet the demands of the future maritime environment.

And this future envisions women as key decision-makers.

Our military is more ready, and ultimately more lethal because of our women warfighters.

In his 1961 farewell letter to the “Destroyermen” of the United States Navy, then-Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Arleigh Burke said: “In some places, the designation of a man as an ‘advocate’ has a critical note attached to it. This is an erroneous criticism. If a man believes in something, then he must certainly be an ‘advocate,’ because if he doesn’t stand up for those things in which he believes, he becomes a man who can be easily swayed to any belief. From there it is a very short step to a disinclination to accept responsibility or be dependable.”

I implore you to take Admiral Burke’s words to heart.

We—men and women alike—must contribute to the meaningful participation of women in the armed forces to increase combat readiness and operational effectiveness.

By empowering women, we are not merely fulfilling a moral imperative. We are also investing in a more peaceful, prosperous, and just future for all.

With women serving in key roles in our armed forces, we become a more lethal fighting force, capable of defending our national interests and our people.

And so, here today, I pause to honor one of those brave women previously mentioned—Captain Joy Bright Hancock—a trailblazer who paved the way for generations of women to proudly serve this great Nation.

The future FFG 69, USS Joy Bright Hancock, will forever carry her name.

And as I close out my time as your 78th Secretary, please know that my wife Betty and I will always carry you in our hearts and prayers till our dying days.

May God bless our service men and women stationed all over the globe.

And now, I have the great honor to introduce a leader who serves as the 6th President of the Republic of Kosovo.

Prior to her election on April 4th, 2021, she was five-times elected as a Member of Parliament and served as the Speaker of Parliament.

She serves as the head of state and Commander-in-Chief of the Kosovo Security Force.

She is a law graduate from the University of Pristina and has also earned Masters and Doctorate degrees in international law from the University of Pittsburgh.

As a staunch advocate for an impartial and professional justice system, she has strongly supported extensive rule of law reforms in Kosovo.

And she has been a champion of women’s rights, especially for processes of peace, security, and women’s economic and political empowerment. 

Her career of service and leadership have not only strengthened Kosovo but also inspired others all around the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s give a strong welcome to the President of the Republic of Kosovo, Her Excellency Dr. Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu.