Pete Hegseth wants women in the kitchen — but his wife as his top adviser

However much Donald Trump-style BS-ing he does around it Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth can t hide the dim view he takes of women s worth outside of the home 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 in his book The War on Warriors Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free In the months since he s been running the Defense Department Hegseth s apparent priority is pushing as numerous women out of leadership as doable and often with the flimsiest of excuses that make it clear his disapproval stems from their gender not their work During his Senate confirmation hearings in January his ex-sister-in-law submitted an affidavit begging senators not to confirm him claiming he s a misogynist who abused his second wife She wrote that she heard him say that women should not have the right to vote and that they should not work Hegseth also she announced made excuses for sexual assault which he was accused of by a woman who attended a Republican women s conference in California in where he spoke He settled out of court with the alleged victim in Hegseth has denied holding these beliefs But he also is a fervent devotee of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches a body that preaches the preponderance extreme views of women s submission exposed in any form of Christianity religious scholar Julie Ingersoll reported Salon The church s leader Doug Wilson in recent times gave an interview to CNN in which he argued that women shouldn t have the right to vote and have no place outside the home Women are the kind of people that people come out of he revealed making it clear he didn t think they had much value beyond procreation Hegseth posted the video on X adding All of Christ for All of Life But with anyone serving in the Trump administration it s necessary to look at what they do not what they say And the defense secretary s behavior strongly suggests he s at least intrigued by Wilson s opposition to the th Amendment The Pentagon later clarified that Hegseth doesn t oppose women s suffrage But with anyone serving in the Trump administration it s necessary to look at what they do not what they say And the defense secretary s behavior strongly suggests he s at least intrigued by Wilson s opposition to the th Amendment This all makes it very surprising and confounding that Hegseth s top adviser appears to be Jennifer Hegseth his current wife and a former Fox News producer Press coverage of this marital-work arrangement leans on euphemisms like unorthodox or that it draws scrutiny but that underplays how frankly weird it is for the defense secretary to have his wife constantly at his side managing his affairs and advising him on military matters even though she is not on the Pentagon payroll and she has no experience with the military Jennifer Hegseth was even part of last spring s Signal shame which revealed she is looped in on top secret military meetings that are supposed to only be available to people with the highest level of prevention clearances The absurdity of her role only compounds the larger clown show that is her husband s tenure at Defense It s bad enough that Trump appointed a wholly unqualified Fox News weekend host who is more worried about fighting phantom woke than protecting national prevention That he relies on his wife for advice instead of experienced professionals who he seems to view with loathing only shows how terrifyingly bad Hegseth is at even the majority basic of his job requirements Related Death of a heritage warrior The right s comeback win is Charlie Kirk s legacy But the arrangement is also confusing from a political point of view Hegseth and his church leaders are adamant that women are incapable of handling men s work His belief system holds that his wife isn t even capable of being a soldier Why then is it okay for her to be a top military adviser The reason is both simple and stupid Because her work is unpaid As it turns out all this contempt that leaders of the religious right have for a woman s capabilities miraculously dries up the second her intelligence can be used to serve a man and not herself Women s intelligence and competence isn t a difficulty as long as it is used to assistance men and remains safely contained in dependent roles such as the pastor s wife Beth Allison Barr a history professor at Baylor University communicated Salon It only becomes a complication when it threatens male authority In her book Becoming the Pastor s Wife Barr lays out the historical context for conservative churches shoehorning women into this wifely role where they handle much of their husbands work without attaining the status or pay for doing so In May Barr wrote an op-ed for the Dallas Morning News arguing that the Hegseth s remarkable arrangement draws on this pastor s wife model Men like Hegseth and Vance and denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention and Doug Wilson s church don t have a dilemma with using women s expertise behind the scenes they only have a complication when their authority is challenged by women she stated Salon Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics Sign up for her free newsletter Standing Room Only now also on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts This though is far from the only way that the Hegseths live that seems to contradict their rigid Christian right ideology Jennifer Hegseth is the secretary s third wife The couple met at Fox News and they began hooking up despite both being married to other people This remained the situation when their first daughter was born in Pete Hegseth didn t even bother to file for divorce from his second wife until after the baby s birth He and Jennifer Hegseth didn t marry until two full years after their baby was born If this were a biography of a non-white person or a cosmopolitan liberal Hegseth would no doubt use it as evidence of the decadence that progressivism has wrought on America and a reason that his Christian nationalist yearnings are justified But when white evangelicals do this sort of thing it s all okay and they justify it by using the very same reasons they are okay with women working as long as they don t get paid As long as male dominance isn t threatened nothing else matters including the extensive trauma that onlookers including Hegseth s own mother say he s inflicted on the past women in his life We need your help to stay independent Subscribe in the current era to advocacy Salon s progressive journalism The newest surge in reactionary politics has been accompanied by a tidal wave of trad propaganda which argues that feminism is bad for women and they would be happier in circumvented roles at home Preponderance of the pundits and influencers making this argument frame housewifery as an escape from the stress of modern working life Yes you may lose a paycheck the argument goes but you gain so much more such as free time and freedom from the responsibilities endured by working men and women But the Hegseths hypocrisy reveals the ugly truth Women in submissive roles aren t just expected to work they re often required to quietly handle much of their husbands professional duties free help that allows him to climb the career ladder while his wife is consigned to the shadows Perhaps it s working out for Jennifer Hegseth After all she s a powerful person at the Pentagon and she may even be the bulk powerful woman especially now that her husband has fired so multiple female leaders who genuinely earned their positions For largest part women though it s a raw deal They use their college degrees to help their husbands dispense with menial tasks so he can focus on the more exciting and visible parts of his job They are expected to handle thankless work like managing a social calendar and his wardrobe so that he can benefit from the networking opportunities that open up Wives of politicians and pastors alike both have to juggle diplomacy work serving dinners and soothing egos so that their husbands can swoop in and close deals It s a vision straight out of Mad Men It makes sense why men would want all this unpaid labor directed toward their professional ambitions But greater part women who sign up for this would have better lives if they used their talents for their own careers A paycheck and recognition for your work is worth more than being reduced to a mere helpmeet Read more about this topic MAGA s plan for a white Christian America is unfolding before our eyes Why is it so hard to stop Donald Trump Even Leavitt can t spin the joke check from Epstein to DJTrump The post Pete Hegseth wants women in the kitchen but his wife as his top adviser appeared first on Salon com