The Air Force’s various “Athena” programs focused on women’s readiness issues at the Major Command level are shut down as the service conducts a review of programs linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion, as ordered by President Trump.
A service spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the major commands have “paused their Athena Programs while the Air Force reviews them to determine if their focus aligns with optimizing operational readiness, lethality, and warfighter innovation.”
The Athenas, so named because the first one formed at Air Combat Command dubbed itself Sword Athena in reference the Greek goddess of war, were conceived as a means to identify and overcome barriers to combat effectiveness for women in the Air Force.
There are now Athena groups at every major command. Each MAJCOM described its plans in its own way in memos circulated on social media and verified by Air & Space Forces Magazine.
Air Combat Command boss Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach wrote that the “Sword Athena 2025 Summit and all other Sword Athena events are canceled,” but said his staff would “assess efforts currently underway and determine the best way forward.” The summit had been scheduled for late February, and the volunteer team had just completed a virtual kickoff event before Wilsbach’s notice.
Air Force Reserve Command and Air National Guard leaders wrote in their memo that the “ARC Athena charter and program are terminated immediately.”
Reach Athena announced it had ceased all official actions on behalf of Air Mobility Command in accordance with a Jan. 21 memo from Acting Air Force Secretary Gary A. Ashworth to “disestablish” all Department of the Air Force Barrier Analysis Working Groups.
The DAF-wide Women’s Initiative Team (WIT) was also shut down as directed by that memo.
It is possible the Athena programs could start back up again after the Department of the Air Force finishes its review, but that could take a while. Under a Jan. 27 Executive Order, the Pentagon has 30 days to issue guidance to its different departments, and reports on implementation must follow after 180 days. In theory, these tasks could be completed sooner.
The fate of the WIT is less clear. It was launched in 2008, 11 years before Sword Athena was formed in a grassroots effort at ACC in 2019.
In all cases, volunteers say they sought to identify problems or barriers that prevented female Airmen from performing their jobs or hurt readiness. They said at no time did they propose anything to favor women over men.
“It was never done for the sake of diversity. It was never done for the sake of inclusion,” one WIT volunteer told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “It was done for the sake of, we need every able-bodied person to be able to do their job.”
It’s about being as lethal as we can be and removing barriers to readiness,” an Athena volunteer lead added. “So everything that we did, all of our initiatives, always tied back to [commanders’] priorities.”
Some initiatives the WIT and Athena programs focused on included developing equipment built for female Airmen like flight suits, body armor, and bladder relief in the cockpit.
“The intent was just a way for our Airmen, our aviators, to be able to get appropriately fitting flight suits and gear,” the Athena lead said. “And what we said was, I mean, we showed studies that showed that especially ejection seat pilots, if they do not have properly fitting gear, then their survivability decreases.”
Another effort was to push for changes to hair regulations after years of female Airmen saying tight buns were giving them headaches and even causing hair loss. Other initiatives called for better access to basic hygiene products, child care, family readiness, and recruiting—issues volunteers said were needed to make sure they could focus on the mission.
“I don’t want [Airmen] worrying about their families back home. I don’t want them worrying about personal hygiene or anything like that,” Lt. Col. Meghan O’Rourke, a member of AFSOC’s Dagger Athena, said at the 2023 event. “I want those barriers tackled. … I want those tackled so that they can do their job as well as they possibly can.”
The WIT volunteer noted that the team was chartered under the Air Force’s equal opportunity program, not its diversity and inclusion office. That left some hope that the work can continue.
“What I’m passionate about is that there being a mechanism where tactical-level warfighters have the ability and access to senior leaders to highlight the barriers that are impacting their operational readiness,” the WIT volunteer said.
The Athena lead, however, cautioned that the work the volunteers have done could also go away.
“I know that the current climate is such that I can see it not coming back, because that would be easier than to try and redefine this,” she said.