NASA has been ordered to scrub any mention of ‘women in leadership’ from its websites.
The move has come after President Donald Trump signed an executive order against programs promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA).
This is according to a directive that was obtained by 404 Media.
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In the directive, it states: “Per NASA HQ direction, we are required to scrub mentions of the following terms from our public sites by 5pm ET today. This is a drop everything and reprioritize your day request. Note that the list below is the list that exists this morning, but it may grow as the day goes on.
DEIA
Diversity (in context of DEIA)
Equity (" ")
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Inclusion (" ")
Accessibility (" ")
MSI
Minority Serving Institution
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Indigenous People
EEJ
EJ
Environmental Justice
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Underrepresented groups/people
Anything specifically targeting women (women in leadership, etc.)”
Janet Petro is the current administrator of NASA but, despite having a woman leading the space agency, it no longer wants to mention women in leadership on its website.
The directive, which was sent out on January 22, also informs NASA staff that the site needs to be cleared of any mention of DEI, environmental justice, Indigenous people, and accessibility.
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An anonymous NASA employee spoke to 404 Media, saying: “We were absolutely required to scrub all DEI related or DEI adjacent topics and terms from all external websites by 5pm the 22nd, which was a drop everything and get it done task.”
Federal agencies have received a memo by the US Office of Personnel Management shortly after Trump took office that instructed the bodies to put all staff members in DEIA offices on paid leave.
They were also told to provide a list of any DEIA offices as well as a redundancy plan.
Petro was one of the signatories of the memo, which stated that diversity programs ‘divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination’.
The note also appeared to suggest that ‘some in government’ have been attempting to sneak in programs and employees were warned that if they don’t ‘report’ violations then they could face ‘adverse consequences’.
Since then, Petro has closed both the NASA Diversity and Inclusion office and the agency’s diversity and inclusion website.
Petro is the first head of NASA since it was founded back in 1958 after she was appointed by Trump.
In a previous statement released in 2017, the space agency said that ‘diversity and inclusion are integral to mission success at NASA’.
UNILAD Tech has contacted NASA for a comment.