In 2024, four women held the rank of four-star general or admiral. One year later, in 2025, there are none. This is just one example of how individuals and groups who believe in social equity and fairness are embroiled in a cultural war—and the opposing side is winning.

With the recent firing of Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s first female chief, the U.S. military is left without a single woman with a four-star rank. The significance of this firing highlights the fact that the glass ceiling, which had previously been shattered, has not only been put back into place but has also been lowered and made stronger. The barriers women have historically faced in the military have returned, with the prospect that Franchetti may be the last woman to achieve the four-star rank for a while.

Threatened by decades of social progress that produced fairness and justice for all people, the authors of Project 2025 sought to create a nation that allows discrimination in all forms to thrive where we live, study and work.

Threatened by decades of social progress that produced fairness and justice for all people, the authors of Project 2025 sought to create a nation that allows discrimination in all forms to thrive where we live, study and work.

Let’s be honest: In the attack against the hard-fought victories toward social equity, the main culprits are not President Trump or Vice President Vance. Since the 1970s, the Heritage Foundation pulling the strings behind the scenes. Many right-wing politicians, media figures and influencers have joined in by effectively turning fear into a weapon in their anti-DEI movement.

In this current political climate, fear is far more effective than the politics of unity. The success of the anti-DEI movement is not because their arguments are factual. They succeed because the puppet master and their supporters understand a fundamental truth: When people feel vulnerable, they are more likely to look for someone to blame. Former President Richard Nixon said it best: “People react to fear, not love. They don’t teach that in Sunday school, but it’s true.”

White women are the group that gained the most from affirmative action, which started in the late 1970s. The same group benefited the most through DEI initiatives from the late 1990s to 2000s. All of the social gains by white women are now in serious jeopardy.

The current administration campaigned on eliminating so- called “wokeness” and “DEI hires” in the federal government, the military and universities—and on pressuring corporate leaders to do the same. Right-wing candidates, including Trump, turned social equity into a personal threat.

White workers were misled into believing that racial diversity programs are the reason they can’t get ahead. They were led to believe that DEI initiatives are a threat because of lost opportunities, reverse discrimination and a shift in the status quo. They  were misled into thinking that DEI policies unfairly prioritize race and gender over merit.

While a lack of understanding about the purpose and implementation of DEI initiatives contributed to negative perceptions—and to people being controlled and manipulated—white women should know better. The elimination of women’s power has been a goal of Project 2025. Any attack on DEI is meant to eliminate the power of women—all women.

Why would a white woman stand against diversity, equity and inclusion when she has benefited from the fight to ensure opportunities for promotions within the government, military and private sector?

Women need to support other women when the true threat and contrast have been made clear during election campaigns. How do we win this cultural war when women are unwilling to support candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris in presidential elections against Trump?

Women need to support other women in corporate America. White women out-earn their Black and Latino counterparts.

Therefore, they must advocate for their fellow women of color when given the opportunity to do so. Silence against the anti-DEI movement by white women is self-destructive.

Desmond Tutu once said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Women need to support other women because Black women have grown tired of fighting for white women who refuse to acknowledge the threat from the puppet master. They refuse to challenge the narrative that women and people of color are being given jobs and promotions at the expense of more qualified and deserving candidates.

We know that this backlash rhetoric is not true. Ask former four-star Adm. Lisa Franchetti.

The writer is the founder of the faith-based organization TRB: The Reconciled Body.