A sweeping, year-one rundown of how Trump’s second-term power grabs and policy rollbacks are eroding women’s rights, healthcare and economic security.
This analysis was originally published by the National Partnership for Women and Families.
In the first year of the second Trump administration, there has been a barrage of harmful executive orders, the appointment of dangerous and unqualified political nominees, and the unprecedented firing of federal employees, along with restructuring or near elimination of many federal agencies. Amidst a nonstop, chaotic whirlwind of daily breaking news, court decisions and more, the administration is abusing its power to turn back the clock on rights and protections for hundreds of millions of people.
Below we highlight some ways this administration has been particularly harmful for women and their families.
Threats to Women in the Workplace
1. Weaponizing the EEOC
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is an independent federal agency with a bipartisan slate of five commissioners; the agency is at the frontlines of civil rights enforcement, investigating and remedying employment discrimination charges. In FY 2023 alone, the commission received more than 81,000 complaints of alleged discrimination, including discrimination by sex, race, religion and age. The EEOC plays a vital role in ensuring that all workers—and women workers in particular—are treated fairly; from 2014-2024, the EEOC recovered $5.6 billion for workers who were discriminated against.
The Trump administration has taken actions to kneecap the EEOC’s true purpose of enforcing civil rights laws and anti-discrimination provisions and worked to weaponize the office to investigate employers that President Trump has a personal vendetta against. The weaponization of the EEOC’s remaining staff and resources includes its questioning of 20 law firms over their hiring practices, many of which the president has made clear he views as hostile in a series of high-profile executive orders. With new EEOC chair Andrea Lucas and a confirmed Republican majority, the EEOC’s priorities and limited resources are clearly shifting to align with the president’s false claims of systemic discrimination against white men. In FY 2025, the commission filed only 93 lawsuits, a 10-year low.
2. Attempting to withdraw guidance on workplace harassment
On Dec. 29, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission took steps to rescind necessary guidance on workplace harassment; the request to withdraw the 2024 guidance completely bypasses the comment period that was used when developing the guidance, during which the EEOC received over 37,000 comments. The EEOC’s attempt to avoid public comment underscores the consequences pulling the comprehensive guidance would have for workers across the nation relying on their employers to have clear, actionable guidance to protect them from harassment in the workplace. It’s one more step taken by Trump’s EEOC to abandon protections for women and LGBTQ+ employees in favor of a politicized focus on religious discrimination and perceived discrimination against white men.
3. Threatening the implementation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA)
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is a commonsense law that requires employers to offer reasonable accommodations to workers who have needs related to pregnancy, childbirth and other related medical conditions. It ensures workers have access to basic accommodations, such as bathroom breaks or leave for healthcare appointments. It is enforced by the EEOC, which has the authority to investigate and settle discrimination complaints, including those that would be covered by the PWFA.
While the previous administration defended the law and rules from attacks, pregnant workers are now threatened by the Trump administration’s approach to the rule and the EEOC. Research by the National Partnership finds that efforts to overturn or undercut the enforcement of the PWFA put 2.8 million pregnant workers at risk each year.
4. Undoing long-standing protections for federal contract workers from workplace discrimination by rescinding Executive Order 11246
For nearly 60 years—during Democratic and Republican presidential administrations alike—EO 11246 was in place to ensure that federal contractors took proactive steps to promote equal opportunity for employment and did not discriminate against their employees on the basis of race, religion, sex and more. The order was an important tool against rooting out historic gender discrimination, unearthing difficult to find pay disparities, and helping to increase the number of women in upper level, higher paying jobs in leadership when they’d been previously shut out due to their gender.
Now that the Trump administration has rescinded the executive order in its entirety, those that contract with the federal government are no longer required to actively advance equal opportunity.
5. Undermining the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)
The OFCCP is tasked with enforcement of anti-discrimination laws for federal contractors, including but not limited to EO 11246, and is meant to enforce key protections for veterans and disabled people. The office oversees contracts with more than 25,000 firms—which employ 22 percent of the American workforce—and has recovered billions for workers and job seekers who suffered from discrimination. The National Partnership finds that between 2014 and 2024, the OFCCP obtained over $260 million for employees and job seekers who were discriminated against and provided financial relief to almost 260,000 employees and job seekers. Despite its obvious role in protecting at least 36 million workers, the Trump administration is actively gutting its enforcement power, reassigning its staff to other DOL offices, and seeking to eliminate its already meager funding.
6. Abandoning enforcement of protections for disabled federal contract workers
Executive Order 11246, the now-rescinded regulation for federal contractors, prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin; Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is an important counterpart, prohibiting employment discrimination by federal contractors on the basis of disability. It requires federal contractors to take intentional action to hire and retain qualified employees with disabilities, allow individuals to self-identify as workers with disabilities to help ensure important data tracking, and sets a goal for federal contractors to aspire to create a workforce where at least seven percent of employees are people with disabilities. These regulations are vital for advancing equity for the 3.7 million women workers with a disability.
Despite this, Trump’s Department of Labor paused enforcement of the anti-discrimination law for months, then proposed a rule to eliminate key provisions completely.
7. Revoking the $15 minimum wage for federal contractor workers
A Biden-era order raised the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour in 2022. Thanks to inflation adjustments, that rate increased to $17.75 last year. While that order raised wages for hundreds of thousands of workers employed in the private sector at companies with government contracts, on March 14, 2025, the Trump administration revoked the order, opening the door for some employees to experience up to a 25 percent cut to their pay. The workers helped by the Biden executive order—and thus, those most harmed by the Trump administration’s decision to undo it—are disproportionately women, Black workers and Hispanic workers.
8. Working to strip millions of domestic workers of minimum wage and overtime protections
Domestic workers, such as home care workers, nannies and housecleaners, have historically been excluded from important legislation that ensures workers’ rights to overtime protections and the federal minimum wage. This workforce is overwhelmingly made up of women and women of color and despite their crucial work, they contend with a lack of workplace safety, collective bargaining rights, and staggeringly low pay. After years of fighting for their rights, domestic workers won important minimum wage and overtime pay protections through Department of Labor rulemaking, which went into effect in 2015. Now, the Trump administration working to strip millions of domestic workers of those rights through another rulemaking process which, if successful, would further lower wages, increase turnover and undo a decade of progress.
9. Working to undo affirmative action requirements that help ensure women and workers of color have access to apprenticeship programs that can lead to good-paying jobs
Apprenticeship programs are proven to help workers secure good-paying jobs in the trades, such as construction, manufacturing and utilities. It is vital that all workers, including women, people of color, workers with disabilities and other historically excluded groups, can participate in apprenticeship programs that would increase their lifetime earnings potential and economic security. However, women are grossly underrepresented, making up only 14.4 percent of apprentices. Rather than investing in apprenticeship programs as Trump promised, his Department of Labor (DOL) has pushed to make apprenticeships less accessible. The DOL proposed a rule that would remove requirements that certain apprenticeship programs conduct targeted outreach, recruitment and retention activities; that those programs set goals for enrollment based on race and gender; and that programs support workers with disabilities.
10. Intimidating private sector companies to do away with efforts to implement equitable hiring practices and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs
On day one of the administration, Trump signed an executive order aimed at dismantling DEI programs. Trump and his conservative allies often use DEI as an all-encompassing phrase synonymous with perceived discrimination against white men, but that ignores the long history of racism and sexism that these programs and civil rights laws are designed to remedy. Instead, the executive order is a proxy for attacks on civil rights and discrimination protections overall. It targets equity measures in the federal government and threatens advances in the private sector in equitable hiring, equal pay and anti-discrimination for women. Companies have used the “evolving legal landscape” to cut or change their DEI goals, including Accenture, Pepsi and Citigroup. Trump’s Department of Justice is enacting an intense pressure campaign, promising subpoenas and investigations into corporations with diversity programs.
11. Installing political appointees with anti-worker agendas
Trump has chosen multiple people as political appointees with anti-worker agendas that would harm millions of women workers. For example, Keith Sonderling, Trump’s pick for deputy labor secretary, voted against the EEOC’s final rule on the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act during his time as a commissioner.
Notably, Trump has tasked Russell Vought with running the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), an agency that plays a powerful role in dictating the experience of women and families across the country. OMB leads the creation of executive orders and legislative proposals from the executive branch, manages the presidential budget, and oversees the regulatory process happening across agencies. Vought was a major architect of Project 2025 and is now a key player in the chaotic, illegal expansion of presidential power that occurred in the first year of the Trump administration.
The administration has also selected nominees to critical civil rights enforcement agencies who pledge allegiance to their priorities rather than protecting the rights of workers, such as Brittany Panuccio to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, who suggested that she would agree to cease investigating discrimination charges filed by women if directed to do so by the president.
12. Threatening to eliminate the Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor
The Women’s Bureau was established by Congress in 1920 and is the only federal agency mandated to work on advancing economic opportunity for working women. For more than 100 years, the office has conducted research, drafted policy and engaged in grantmaking and outreach to improve working conditions and wages for women across the workforce. For example, the Bureau has funded Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations grants, awarding more than $21 million dollars to organizations across the country to expand pathways for women in good-paying jobs, as well as providing research and grants that made passing state-level paid leave programs possible in about a dozen states. Instead of investing in programs and initiatives that address the barriers women face in the economy, the Trump administration is committed to dismantling the very agency dedicated to that work.
13. Introducing dangerous uncertainty to the economy through the chaotic implementation of extreme tariffs, increasing the risk of an economic downturn
The implementation of Trump’s signature economic policy proposal of broad and un-strategic tariffs is stoking fears of a global trade war. Specifics of the tariffs have shifted throughout the year, but economists across parties have raised the alarm that Trump’s rash economic decisions are increasing the possibility of an economic slowdown or recession. If a slowdown or recession becomes reality, there could be serious consequences for women’s wealth and long-term financial well-being. Already, we have seen meager job growth for the year. Monthly job growth in 2025 averaged just 49,000 jobs a month, compared to 168,000 in 2024. This drop was driven by losses in industries affected by tariffs, as well as painful cuts to the federal government. Women’s declines were also pronounced—they averaged 78,000 jobs gained each month in 2024, compared to just 35,000 in 2025.
Threats to Women’s Health
14. Increasing care costs by allowing vital Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax subsidies to expire
Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) in July 2025 that did not extend tax subsidies that make health coverage affordable for over 21 million enrollees in the ACA Marketplace, including 10 million women. The expiration of these subsidies at the end of 2025 will lead to significant premium increases, loss of coverage and increased uncompensated care for healthcare providers unless Congress acts. An estimated 4.8 million people could become uninsured in 2026.
15. Passing historic cuts to the Medicaid program, that will disproportionately affect women and children’s access to healthcare
The OBBBA cuts more than $1 trillion from the Medicaid and the ACA—representing the largest rollback of federal funding in U.S. history. An estimated 7.8 million people will become uninsured due to Medicaid cuts by 2034. These cuts will also put over 130 labor and delivery units in rural areas at risk of closure, making maternal healthcare even more inaccessible in rural communities. Loss of Medicaid funding may also force states to drop optional 12 months postpartum coverage which is essential in mitigating the maternal health crisis.
16. Signing legislation to implement “work requirements” for Medicaid eligibility which will cause 5 million people to lose coverage
OBBBA includes an unprecedented federal mandate to implement work reporting requirements for the adult Medicaid expansion group, including parents (of children over age 13). Evidence shows that work requirements do not increase employment rates and instead create unnecessary red tape and barriers that will lead to historic coverage losses, even for people with exemptions like people with disabilities and pregnant people (which can result in gaps in essential prenatal and postpartum care).
17. Ending Medicaid funding for state services that support people’s health and well-being
In April, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will end a federal funding match to states for certain “non-medical” needs, such as health-related social needs and other public health initiatives. These cuts to necessary programs will harm Medicaid recipients and care providers across the country, including cutting grants for high-speed internet for rural health providers, student loan repayment programs and other initiatives that help many maintain independent living with personal care assistance and meal preparation.
18. Shuttering reproductive health clinics by freezing funding for the Title X Family Planning Program and defunding Planned Parenthood
The Trump administration’s efforts to withhold Title X funds and “defund” reproductive health providers have driven reproductive health clinic closures and exacerbated barriers to healthcare access. The Title X Family Planning Program funds critical reproductive health services in low-income communities, including affordable birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and more.
On April 1, the Trump administration withheld millions of dollars from sixteen Title X grantees due to alleged violations of recent executive orders, including prohibitions on DEI efforts. While funding was later restored, withholding reproductive health funding threatens to delay care and close clinics for those who need them most.
Furthermore, the OBBBA defunded Planned Parenthood clinics and Maine Family Planning by prohibiting Medicaid reimbursements. While the prohibition on federal funding is only written into law for one year, it’s already having longstanding effects. Following the loss of Title X funds and Medicaid reimbursements, nearly 50 Planned Parenthood health centers were forced to close last year.
19. Sowing mistrust in abortion pill safety to set the stage for future restrictions on access
Medication abortion is critical to abortion access nationwide, accounting for more than 60 percent of all clinician-provided abortion care. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it would formally review mifepristone, one of two pills commonly used for medication abortions, despite its longstanding record of safety and efficacy. Administration officials justified the politically motivated re-evaluation of abortion pill safety with junk science and disinformation about risks. This manufactured crisis is an attempt to curb access to medication abortion, laying the groundwork for further restrictions on abortion pills in the future.
20. Undermining reproductive health privacy and leaving patients vulnerable to criminalization
The Trump administration refused to defend the 2024 HIPAA Privacy Rule for Reproductive Health, which had lessened the risk of pregnant patients being reported to law enforcement and better protected those forced to travel to receive care because of state abortion bans. In the first two years after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, prosecutors brought more than 400 cases charging pregnant people with crimes related to pregnancy, pregnancy loss or birth. Trump’s DOJ abandoned the fight to protect patient privacy and declined to appeal a district court ruling that took away protections against reproductive health criminalization from patients nationwide.
21. Banning abortion care for veterans and their families who rely on VA healthcare
In 2024, the Department of Veterans Affairs boasted that it had more women veterans enrolled in its healthcare system than ever before. The Trump administration quietly implemented a policy that no longer allows the VA healthcare system to provide abortion care or even abortion counseling, including in instances of rape or incest, affecting the over nine million veterans enrolled in the VA healthcare program. This is an abortion ban for veterans, with severe impacts.
Research from the National Partnership finds that more than half of women veterans of reproductive age live in states that have banned abortion or likely to do so—now, the administration has eliminated a crucial source of access for those veterans who would otherwise have no options. And crucially, the ban also means that veterans and their families in states with abortion protections still won’t be able to access the abortion care they need due to their VA health coverage. This policy is now the most extreme abortion restriction across any federal healthcare program.
22. Limiting enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act
The FACE Act makes it a federal crime to use force, threats of force or physical obstruction to prevent people from receiving or providing reproductive healthcare such as abortions. This legislation was passed in 1994 in response to violence by anti-abortion protestors against abortion providers, such as through blockades, sit-ins at clinics and bombings. The National Abortion Federation finds that between 1977 and 2022, there were 11 murders, 42 bombings, 531 assaults and 492 clinic invasions amongst thousands of other criminal activities directed at abortion providers, patients and volunteers. Death threats and other threats of harm against providers have only increased in the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, yet Trump’s Department of Justice announced in its first days that it would no longer enforce the law except under severe and “extraordinary circumstances.” The lack of enforcement makes clinics less safe for patients and providers.
23. Pursuing pronatalist policies that constrain women’s health and autonomy over their family planning
Pronatalism is a policy that encourages people to bear children predicated on racist, misogynistic and ableist ideas about what kinds of families are desirable and worthy of being protected. Pronatalism confines women to a regressive reproductive framework and undercuts their decision-making around if, when, and how to have children, limiting their societal value to their capacity as mothers. Administration officials have pushed numerous pronatalist ideas and policies to incentivize a higher U.S. birth rate, including “baby bonuses,” fertility education classes, and a “National Medal of Motherhood.” The White House also promotes “blame and shame” fertility, which frames infertility as a failure of women. Trump’s nominee to be the next surgeon general supports this deeply stigmatizing, anti-reproductive freedom fertility approach. Glaringly lacking from the pronatalist agenda are the supports families need to raise healthy families, including expanded healthcare access.
24. Compromising access to emergency abortion care by undermining the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA)
Barriers to emergency abortion care result in people being forced to continue dangerous and often life-threatening pregnancies. There are increasing, high-profile stories of women who could not access emergency abortion care and suffered devastating consequences. The Trump administration has undermined protections under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) that require hospitals to provide stabilizing care, including abortion care, for patients in medical emergencies. The Department of Justice dropped a federal lawsuit that could have protected emergency abortion care and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). CMS later rescinded guidance that reminded hospitals of their duty to provide emergency abortion care even in states with abortion bans. These actions will exacerbate chaos and confusion around when and whether providers can perform life- and health-saving abortion care in the context of state abortion bans—putting pregnant people’s life, health and future fertility at risk.
25. Threatening efforts to reduce Black maternal deaths and improve maternal healthcare
Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy than white women and are also disproportionately affected by unexpected outcomes in labor and delivery with consequences to their health and well-being. As the National Partnership has previously outlined, Trump’s executive order banning DEI practices significantly weakens the federal government’s ability to hold hospitals accountable for their treatment of Black birthing people and their role in improving Black maternal health. Threats to DEI programs could also contribute to a sharp drop in the diversity of the maternal health workforce which would have negative consequences on patient experience and health outcomes. When paired with the massive Medicaid cuts highlighted earlier, the consequences for Black maternal healthcare are dire.
26. Making controversial changes to vaccine schedules that are especially dangerous for pregnant women and children
At the start of the term, the CDC announced dramatic changes to the childhood immunization schedule.
In May, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unilaterally removed COVID-19 vaccines from the CDC’s immunization recommendations for pregnant people.
In June, Kennedy removed all 17 experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP), installing all new members, including many known vaccine skeptics. The health consequences of these changes are already becoming clear: measles cases hit record levels in the U.S. since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000; visits for flu-like symptoms reaching a thirty-year high; and COVID-19 still responsible for 100,000 deaths a year.
27. Erasing trusted health information and pushing “junk science” that endangers women’s health
In early February, thousands of government websites were suddenly changed or offline. This included webpages for agencies such as the Center for Disease Control, USAID and the Food and Drug Administration; pages that included information vital to the public and medical professionals, such as information on vaccines and reproductive health, were pulled down in order to comply with the onslaught of executive prders, including those that called on federal agencies to reverse course on diversity measures and gender.
Though a judge ordered the administration to restore online access, some links remain dark and the administration’s attempts to hide and change information necessary to the public—particularly information about how to provide care and support women and families—continues. The administration has used junk science to promote unproven claims about the risks of Tylenol to pregnant women, as well as to cast doubt on abortion pill safety.
In November, the CDC website was changed to promote the debunked link between infant vaccines and autism.
28. Ending data collection necessary to monitor disparities and advance health equity
Racial, ethnic and gender inequities can only be eliminated when high quality data is available to identify them, craft solutions and monitor progress. In addition to firing many of the staff responsible for data collection and analysis, the administration has also halted or modified data collection within critical national surveys, including the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). CMS removed both the gender identity and the perceived discrimination items from the national Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey. CMS also removed a structural measure from quality reporting that assesses hospital-level leadership in advancing health equity, including data collection and requirements designed to standardize the identification of social drivers of health, including housing, food, transportation and more.
29. Exacerbating the health workforce crisis
The Trump administration has taken a series of actions that are likely to exacerbate the health workforce crisis. For example, his administration rescinded significant Biden-era staffing standards for nursing facilities that addressed chronic understaffing, patient safety and compensation concerns for direct care workers and staff, 84 percent of whom are women.
Additionally, the severe and historic cuts to Medicaid will affect everyone, including hospital employees that are at risk of losing their jobs due to loss of hospital revenue and potential closures. National Partnership analysis finds that more than 80 percent of people working in hospitals in rural areas are women. The Department of Education has also implemented strict federal loan limits that will disproportionately hurt women, who make up the majority of students pursuing graduate programs, such as nursing, physician assistant studies, public health, physical therapy and social work. The Department of Education also directed schools, including medical schools, to end race-based programs or risk losing federal funding, resulting in a chilling effect that has reduced DEI initiatives and has led to recent declines in enrollment of medical students of color.
30. Leading unprecedented attacks on immigrant and public health
Trump’s mass deportation campaign is forcing immigrants to wait until complications arise and to depend on more costly, emergency care for their source of healthcare.
In November, the administration ordered Medicaid data be shared with ICE officials, putting the health privacy of over 80 million Medicaid enrollees at risk and discouraging millions of eligible immigrants from enrolling and utilizing healthcare coverage. Most recently, the administration proposed a rule seeking to undo public charge protections, effectively penalizing immigrants for accessing essential health services.
31. Ending funding for crucial research on women’s health
Trump has led a continued attack on vital research funding. Important research institutions such as the National Institutes of Health have had their funding and staff cut, resulting in uncertainty of future research funding, canceled study panels and the serious possibility of researchers and scientists closing their labs. Even small delays put millions of dollars for vital women’s health research on the line. And in a serious loss for women’s health research, the Department of Health and Human Services attempted to cancel funding for its first and largest study focused on the health needs of women. The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) has been conducting studies to understand the effects of medications and more on women for more than 30 years, producing essential results to prevent heart disease, osteoporosis and certain cancers. In one of its most significant studies, the WHI’s findings are estimated to have prevented 126,000 breast cancer cases and 76,000 cases of cardiovascular disease in women. After backlash, officials promised to restore funding but uncertainty persists—and it’s clear that without serious attention from experts and the public, similarly important research could slip through the cracks as the administration pursues ill-advised cuts.
32. Enacting widespread staffing cuts to vital Health and Human Services (HHS) offices, including those that improve access to healthcare for vulnerable populations and track maternal and infant health data
The United States is facing a maternal health crisis. However, on March 27, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a rushed and ill-conceived Reduction in Force (RIF) as part of DOGE’s attack on the federal government under the guise of efficiency. Those cuts included an unprecedented mass firing of Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) employees who serve vulnerable populations such as children, seniors, uninsured and rural communities.
The cuts have resulted in the decimation of the Bureau of Primary Health Care and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, contradicting the administration’s Make America Healthy Again focus on preventative care and reducing the prevalence of chronic disease. They have also impacted staff who lead the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline, which provides pregnant people and new parents with mental health and postpartum depression. And the future of critical annual state-level surveys that track childbearing experiences through the CDC, known as the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), remains uncertain. HHS has also begun shuttering the Administration for Community Living, which is central in helping ensure disabled people can live in their communities with the supports they need.
33. Installing appointees who are harming women’s health
The Trump administration has also nominated and confirmed political appointees who are leading/overseeing efforts that harm or undermine women’s health. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has been even worse for America’s health than feared. He has broken promises to leave vaccination schedules intact, continued to make false statements regarding vaccines and autism, and made controversial changes to U.S. dietary guidelines.
Attorney General Pam Bondi is positioned to steer the Department of Justice toward weaponizing the Comstock Act to restrict access to abortion nationwide.
And as the head of the powerful HHS Office for Civil Rights, Paula Stannard is empowered to gut enforcement of nondiscrimination and health privacy protections, putting patients at greater risk of criminalization for their healthcare decisions.
Additional Threats to the Federal Workforce
34. Massive layoffs in the federal government, in part through overreach by Elon Musk and the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) impact local economies and communities, as well as federal women workers
As the Trump administration continues its attacks on federal workers—through mass firings, unprecedented “buyouts,” executive orders and intimidation—the impacts of losing the hard work of civil servants are all too clear. Federal workers perform essential jobs in communities across the country to protect consumers, workers and our health, including processing Social Security benefits, supporting survivors of domestic violence, rooting out discrimination and maintaining our national parks.
Federal workers not only support the work that millions of women rely on across the country, but they are also important cornerstones to local economies. Research by the National Partnership finds that women make up 45 percent of federal workers and that Black and Native women and women veteran workers are especially likely to be federal employees. It’s estimated that more than 300,000 federal workers have left or been forced out of their jobs within President Trump’s first year in office.
35. Targeting DEI programs and offices in the federal government impacts women workers, workers of color, workers with disabilities and more
The Trump administration’s combined efforts to scrap DEI programs and decimate the federal government targets women workers and workers of color. The DOGE team has been focused on plans to purge the federal government of diversity initiatives and government employees who they believe are tied to “DEI,” targeting anyone whose work might include words such as “gender,” “justice” and “equity.” Already, the orders have attempted to eliminate programs aimed at women in wildland firefighting, domestic violence nonprofits and women in underrepresented fields such as the trades; agencies have also scrubbed their websites of many mentions to diversity and inclusion.
36. Revoking collective bargaining and union rights from workers across the federal government
In what has been called “the biggest attack on the labor movement in history,” the Trump administration issued an executive order to eliminate collective bargaining rights for tens of thousands of federal employees working across agencies under the guise of “national security concerns.” In reality, the order attempts to strip unionized employees of protections that both support the workforce and help the federal government be more productive and efficient. The order makes it clear that the Trump administration’s main intention was to retaliate against unions such as the American Federal of Government Employees (AFGE) and National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) that are taking actions to protect federal employees from the administration’s constant, legally dubious attacks. The order has been subject to multiple legal challenges, and in December 2025, a bipartisan group of House Representatives voted to restore collective bargaining rights for federal employees, though that legislation has not passed the Senate.
Additional Threats to Civil Rights Protections and DEI Initiatives
37. Eliminating the Gender Policy Council
The White House Gender Policy Council was established by the Biden administration to promote gender equity and coordinate federal efforts to combat systemic discrimination, increase economic security, increase access to comprehensive healthcare, address caregiving needs and more. The Trump administration eliminated the Gender Policy Council in his first week on office.
38. Regulating gender and gender identity and threatening gender affirming care
One of the Trump administration’s most egregious policies have been his constant attacks on transgender, intersex, and nonbinary individuals. On his first day in office, he signed an executive order claiming to “defend women.” What the order truly does is allow the federal government to control and regulate gender, encouraging discrimination by the government itself against transgender people.
The order also threatens the safety of all women and girls, subjecting all individuals to suspicion and surveillance of their gender and inviting violence against those who do not conform with a narrow understanding of gender and gender roles. For example, in the last year, the Trump administration has introduced new rules to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, the EEOC has refused to enforce workplace protections for transgender workers, and the Department of Labor has rescinded rules that protect transgender people in federal workforce development programs from discrimination.
39. Undercutting civil rights enforcement across federal agencies
The Trump administration is undermining civil rights enforcement across every federal agency, including the Department of Labor, Department of Education and the Social Security Administration. Eliminating the offices tasked with investigating claims of discrimination puts everyone at risk. For example, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights investigates thousands of claims of racial harassment, sexual harassment and sexual violence, and discrimination against students with disabilities each year. Undercutting agencies’ oversight and enforcement abilities is dangerous for the millions who rely on the government to enforce the laws passed to protect them.
40. Rejecting the “disparate impact” liability used by advocates and federal agencies to prove discriminatory impact
Disparate impact is a foundational concept of civil rights law—it maintains that certain practices can violate federal civil rights law because they affect certain groups differently, even when the action appears neutral and doesn’t explicitly state that it intends to discriminate against a protected group. Because of the disparate impact standard, for example, courts have been able to address job requirements that have the impact of discrimination and ensure that workplaces are held to a standard that does not disproportionately exclude women and people of color. The legal theory of disparate impact has been an important tool for civil rights advocates, helping to fight back against discrimination in housing, schools, workplaces and more. But as part of their continued attacks against civil rights, the Trump administration issued an Executive Order eliminating the use of the disparate impact standard by federal agencies and certain entities receiving federal funding, attempting to leave many without an important avenue to prove they’ve been discriminated against.
41. Threatening and withholding funds from universities and other institutions of higher education due to their DEI programs
The Trump administration’s attacks on DEI in higher education have been far-reaching and unprecedented; the President has wielded extraordinary influence to pressure colleges and universities to eliminate their diversity programs, withholding funding and terminating grants at schools across the country. Programs under threat include those that support women in pursuing degrees they are currently underrepresented in, such as engineering and mathematics. In October, the White House made its goal even more explicit: in a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” the administration attempted to promise federal grants to certain universities if those institutions agree to limit academic freedom, center conservative ideology in coursework and end diversity programs that have helped further equity and opportunity. Though the Compact was heavily criticized, the administration continues to pursue its pressure campaign, spreading uncertainty and extracting concessions from elite universities that put academic freedom at risk.
42. Working to limit enforcement of the Fair Housing Act
As one of the most significant pieces of legislation from the Civil Rights movement, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibits discrimination when selling, renting, and/or financing housing. Strong enforcement is mandatory to fulfill the law’s lofty promise, but President Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development is instead refusing to investigate discrimination cases, ending grants to nonprofits that do vital work supporting victims and gutting vital rules meant to help recipients of HUD funding address long-standing inequities and remove barriers to housing.
43. Eliminating DEI programs in the Department of Defense and U.S. Military
The Trump administration’s far-ranging attacks on diversity are also a danger to our national security. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has made his disdain for women in the military abundantly clear—and he has translated it into action that targets women, people of color and other historically underrepresented groups in the military. The Department of Defense has launched a review of the women in ground combat roles; dismissed high-ranking, qualified women from their roles; and eliminated a long-standing advisory committee dedicated to advising the Secretary on policies related to the recruitment and treatment of women in the military.
Overreach and Abuse of Presidential Power Targeting Women and Women of Color
44. Targeting New York Attorney General Letitia James
New York Attorney General Letitia James has long been the target of President Trump’s ire. Under the President’s direction, the Department of Justice has launched an attempt to build a criminal case against her—those attempts have been unsuccessful so far, but the DOJ has signaled that it will continue to target her for legal action as retribution as she continues to sue the Trump administration on behalf of the state of New York. In October, the National Partnership and the National Women’s Law Center drafted a letter in her support, calling for Congress to check the power of the President as he rules by force and intimidation.
45. Targeting Federal Reserve member Dr. Lisa Cook
In September 2025, President Trump attempted to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook as a key step towards his ultimate goal of influencing and controlling the country’s central bank. The effort to unjustly remove her was blocked by a federal judge who found that her firing was unlawful and contrary to the public interest; the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for the case in early 2026. The National Partnership for Women & Families drafted a letter in support of Dr. Lisa Cook, detailing her accomplishments and the importance of an independent Federal Reserve for women’s economic security.
46. Firing Dr. Erika McEntarfer, former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics collects and analyzes important labor data, providing unbiased statistical information about the health of the economy using indicators such as labor force participation and unemployment rates. Economist Dr. Erika McEntarfer led the Bureau until August 2025, when she was unceremoniously fired via social media by President Trump in response to an unfavorable jobs report. The firing was unprecedented and raised immediate concerns that the President would abuse his power to manipulate the economic data to his whims, undermine public trust and corrupt our ability to understand the economy in real time. The White House’s choice to replace Dr. McEntarfer, E.J. Antoni, was widely criticized for overt partisanship and inexperience and ultimately withdrawn from the process; as of January 2026, there has been no official replacement.
47. Firing National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Gwynne Wilcox and general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo
The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that protects employees from unfair labor practices, supports their ability to organize a union, and enforces the National Labor Relations Act. Research by the National Partnership finds that Black and Asian women and part-time workers had the largest gains in union membership growth in 2024 and women workers who are represented by a union see a multitude of benefits, including higher wages and more access to vital benefits such as paid leave, pensions and health coverage. Despite the benefits of the NLRB’s work, President Trump illegally fired Board member Gwynne Wilcox just one week after his inauguration. She is both the first Black woman to ever sit on the NLRB Board and the first to be terminated from the position. The decision has triggered a lengthy legal battle with profound consequences. In May, the Supreme Court issued an emergency administrative stay preventing her reinstatement to the NLRB as they considered the case. The D.C. Circuit Court in December upheld that the administration had the power to remove her without cause. The Supreme Court will decide on a similar case in 2026 that has the potential to overturn or diminish a precedent that protects members of some independent agencies from being removed for political causes. In the meantime, the NLRB finally reached a quorum and is able to decide cases again; with a new Republican majority, they will likely pursue an anti-union agenda.
48. Firing Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) commissioners Jocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows, as well as general counsel Karla Gilbride
The EEOC is an independent federal agency that does crucial work enforcing civil rights protections for workers. In a historically unprecedented move, President Trump illegally fired commissioners Burrows and Samuels on the same day as NLRB Chair Wilcox (discussed above), raising related legal questions tied up in the same upcoming Supreme Court case, discussed in Samuels’s complaint. Samuels has shared that the Trump administration based her firing on her “support for what they termed radical Biden administration guidance for DEI initiatives and … refusal to defend women against extreme gender ideology.” The firings left the commission without a quorum for many months, but the quorum was restored with the confirmation of Brittany Panuccio in October. The commission is now moving to change commission voting procedures to disempower members with minority views—removing tools that now-Chair Lucas utilized with regularity during her tenure as a commissioner throughout the Biden administration.
Additional Threats to Crucial Funding, Safety Net Programs, Federal Election Security and More
49. Furthering anti-immigrant policies, border militarization and a mass deportation agenda
The Trump administration has reshaped America’s immigration policy, ruling with disturbing violence and racist rhetoric and endangering the lives of millions of immigrants to further his own political power at the expense of American democracy. The administration has created new militarized zones at the Southern border, deported immigrants without due process and unleashed ICE agents in neighborhoods across the country spreading violence and fear. Some reports show that pregnant women are being gravely mistreated in detention facilities and detained during reports of domestic violence. This shameful agenda harms everyone, including immigrant women and their families.
50. Legislating drastic cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps low-income families afford groceries; the program is the nation’s largest anti-hunger program, serving roughly 40 million people each month with demonstrated positive impact on food insecurity, health outcomes, medical costs and performance in school for children. In their signature “One, Big Beautiful Bill Act,” President Trump and Republican legislators cut $186 billion from the program. The bill implements ineffective work requirements that will kick an estimated 2.4 million recipients out of the program in an average month, shifts costs to states and changes the way benefits will be calculated. Women are disproportionately likely to experience food insecurity, making up more than half of non-elderly adult SNAP recipients in 2022. SNAP lifted 3.4 million people above the poverty line in 2023 while providing only $6.20 to recipients on average each day, yet Congress cut the program to pay for President Trump’s tax cuts for his wealthy allies.
51. Cutting the Social Security Administration and threatening access to benefits
Despite President Trump’s assurances, Social Security has not been immune to the deliberate attack on federal agencies spearheaded by Elon Musk’s team at DOGE. The Social Security Administration—and the 73 million Americans who benefit from the agency’s programs—have been besieged with issues as the agency phases out phone services for certain requests, pushes out staff at local offices or closes field offices altogether, spreads misinformation in order to attack Social Security programs, and puts people’s personal data at risk. The agency is facing a record backlog as its dramatically reduced staff wades through millions of pending cases and customer service transactions. Though the dismantling of the Social Security Agency is an issue for everyone, it will be especially detrimental to the economic security of older-age women, who tend to live longer than men and have fewer retirement savings.
52. Proposing to eliminate funding for the Head Start program, along with cutting staff and funding for vital children’s programs across federal agencies
Head Start is a 60-year-old federally funded program to provide preschool and child care for low-income families; it currently serves around 800,000 children and pregnant women. Head Start has been proven to support children’s school readiness and their health, as well as increase their likelihood of graduating high school and attending college. The Trump administration has proposed eliminating the entire program, leaving hundreds of thousands of low-income families with no options for affordable, high-quality child care. Those cuts would be in addition to staff and funding reductions already put in place by the Trump administration that harm children’s wellbeing, including cuts to programs that investigate child sexual abuse, prevent youth violence and enforce child support payments. During this fall’s government shutdown, some Head Start programs were also forced to shut down due to frozen funding. President Trump has also attempted to extend his anti-DEI agenda Head Start, circulating a list of words that Head Start grantees couldn’t use in their grant applications. Words on the list included “race,” “pregnant people” and “women.” Although a federal judge halted the order, threats to the program remain.
53. Attempting to disenfranchise voters
In late March, President Trump issued an executive order that, if implemented, would allow Trump’s federal government to commandeer the election system to preserve his own political power. The order instructs the Election Assistance Commission, an independent agency, to change the national mail voter registration form to require proof of citizenship to vote. The order also attempts to restrict state’s abilities to accept mail-in ballots received after Election Day, among other dramatic changes to the federal voting systems. This order has the potential to disenfranchise nearly 21 million otherwise eligible voters, who research shows may not have proof of citizenship readily available—those are voters across party lines, but they are disproportionately Black and Hispanic. As many as 69 million American women have a birth certificate that doesn’t match their legal name because they changed or hyphenated their last names upon marriage. The EO has been challenged as an unconstitutional overreach in the courts, including in a lawsuit filed by 19 state attorneys general. As of January 2026, three federal judges have blocked major portions of the executive order as an overreach of presidential authority.
