Feb 06, 2025 15:00:00

NASA ordered to remove 'women's leadership' and 'diversity' content from website

By

Todd Lappin

In February 2025, it was reported that NASA had been instructed to remove any terminology related to diversity and inclusion within the organization. According to an internal memo dated January 22, NASA employees were asked to cease all operations and remove all references related to DEI programs, diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, minority-serving organizations, Indigenous peoples, environmental justice, underrepresented groups, and women in leadership from their official website.

Workers at NASA Told to 'Drop Everything' to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites
https://www.404media.co/nasa-dei-drop-everything-executive-order/

NASA Ordered to Remove Anything About 'Women in Leadership' From Its Websites: Report
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-ordered-to-remove-anything-about-women-in-leadership-from-its-websites-report-2000559596

President Donald Trump, who took office on January 20, 2025, has announced a policy to abolish the DEI program, which encourages gender and racial diversity. As a result, related content has been removed from government websites, and it has been reported that the words fairness and diversity have been deleted or modified.

Various pages from government sites, including public data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, disappeared under President Trump's orders. What on earth disappeared? - GIGAZINE

The instructions to NASA employees were reportedly 'demanding that all work be suspended and prioritized.'[1] The terms that were removed included the DEIA program (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility), minority advocacy, references to Native Americans, environmental justice, minorities, and anything related to women's leadership.

The memo also included the disclaimer, 'This list is current as of this morning and may be updated throughout the day.'

IT news site 404media has been taking note of the change in the position of NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro.

Petro, who is NASA's first female administrator, criticized the diversity program in a memo to staff, saying it 'divides Americans along racial lines, wastes taxpayer dollars, and creates shameful discrimination.' However, according to 404media, Petro emphasized the importance of diversity as director of the Kennedy Space Center in 2021 and

said he was 'deeply committed' to creating career paths for women and minorities in particular.

The changes can be seen on NASA's GitHub repository . For example, the word 'inclusive' has been replaced with 'fair,' and the word 'inclusivity' has been removed entirely from promotional materials. Additionally, 'articles about the first female, Black, and Asian American astronauts' were removed from the website by January 29.

In addition, the impact of this order goes beyond a simple change in wording to include actual operations. For example, several committees in the fields of astrophysics and planetary sciences have been temporarily suspended in order to examine how they relate to the abolished DEI program.

404media noted that this move could also affect NASA's scientific research and the progress of space exploration.