Ember Duke | layout editor

With the conclusion of women’s history month, President Donald Trump gave a speech in the White House last week to a room of women, touting his administration’s concerted efforts to “protect” them.

But, that protection may only be for women who fit the standards of nuclear family homemakers, said Jennifer Taylor, professor of public history at Duquesne University.

“I think it presumes that that’s the best scenario for a woman and doesn’t leave much open to interpretation,” Taylor said.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which defines two sexes — male and female — as the only legal means of gender identification.

Trump echoed the sentiment in his March 26 White House address.

“We’re ending the Marxist war on women,” Trump said. He also stated that his administration is well-equipped to care for women’s needs — highlighting his orders to ban transgender people from women’s athletics, his ban on puberty blockers and how he stopped low income housing projects from being built in suburban neighborhoods.

The legality of the gender ideology order is still unclear, Bruce Ledewitz , professor of constitutional law at Duquesne University said.

Trump also signed orders requiring the dismantling of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) language and policy in federal agencies at the start of his term.

It is unconstitutional for the federal government to tell universities to curb DEI efforts, Ledewitz said.

“Public universities are bound by equal protection in the Constitution not to discriminate based on race. Private universities are not bound by equal protection in the Constitution because they’re not the government, but they are bound by Title VI,” he said. “All universities are prohibited from engaging in race discrimination … The U.S. Supreme Court decides what that means, not the Trump administration.”

The Department of Education is investigating at least 50 universities as of March 14, at the behest of Trump’s effort to end diversity admissions practices, which his officials said exclude white and Asian American students, according to the Associated Press.

It is a clear intimidation effort and universities have a constitutionally protected right to admit people based on race and gender diversification, Ledewitz said.

“What some universities will do in order not to provoke the Trump administration is they will cut back on their lawful diversity efforts, and that’s unfortunate,” Ledewitz said.

For some, such as Ava Hickman, president of Duquesne College Republicans, Trump’s women’s history address was a breath of fresh air, and she said that as a young woman in political spaces she feels respected and safe.

“I find it offensive to imply that because of DEI policies, or because of any other reason, that because I’m a woman, I can’t get a job based on the merit of my work,” she said.

Hickman said she’s previously held positions and committee appointments which she gained based on her female perspective and is glad to see more women in a traditionally conservative political space.

“I think that it’s important to acknowledge that someone can have different experiences based on their gender or based on where they grew up … [but] I think that labeling people based on those things can be harmful,” she said. “We should focus on people’s individual experience and giving them opportunities that are right for them … I think doing it on the arbitrary basis of what someone looks like or what’s underneath their pants is not productive.”

Ledewitz said the substitute to DEI admission’s processes will create a system where people with more money are accepted.

“The only way you can prove to them [the administration] that you are not violating the law is by admitting more white males and that’s absurd,” he said “The whole point of DEI is to try to undo those unjustified hierarchies … Merit is not when you have the finish line at the same point for everybody. Merit is when you have the starting point, also at the same point for everybody.”

DEI on the Bluff

Caroline Benec, president of the Women’s Law Association hopes Duquesne can be a guiding light, but she has been dissatisfied with the university’s administrative response — or rather a lack thereof.

“The administration at large has, I would say, preemptively, cowered at the executives’ conditioning of federal funds on curricular control, on private speech control [and] to control that even private universities, not use DEI language,” Benec said.

She said she hopes Duquesne can take notes from Georgetown University Law Center, which has reaffirmed its Catholic value of welcoming one’s neighbors and intellectual mission to promote discourse from diverse perspectives.

“Much about recent federal actions remains uncertain and much of it is currently facing a variety of legal challenges. Therefore, we are keeping our attention on serving our students, while maintaining awareness of what may be required of us to be compliant with federal guidance as these matters are sorted out,” Gabe Welsch, vice president of university marketing and communications, said in an email to The Duke.

Welsch said the university is focused on creating a welcoming atmosphere for a range of perspectives.

“The Spiritan Pedagogy Duquesne encourages an educational approach, reflected in the university’s mission, that commits to excellence in liberal and professional education, is ecumenical and open to diverse backgrounds and cultures, promotes a global vision and nurtures a sense of community,” Welsch said.

Benec said following the law school’s DEI director Valerie Harper’s retirement last semester, the students haven’t seen much effort to fill the position. She did, however, praise the law school faculty for holding a discussion with students recently to answer questions regarding the current executive stance — DEI was not addressed, she said.

“It erodes the trust of students in the leadership of … the administration and also, it also erodes their trust in the sense of ‘where do I belong in this community that’s not standing up for me,’” Benec said. “The university must continue to signal … not just with words, with actions too … they must continue to reaffirm our Catholic spirit and values.”

Trump and his administration’s rhetoric regarding gender ideology, consistently pits transgender people as a harm to cisgender women. The administration also cut funding for projects regarding gay, lesbian and transgender people from at least 68 grants from 46 different institutions, according to a March 24 article by the Associated Press.

Gender Sexuality Alliance President Nialah Miller is not doomsday prepping, but is being more careful to have the club slide under the radar by sometimes using language that is aligned more with the federal policies off campus, such as community instead of diversity. She understands the university’s quiet stance, but wishes sometimes they would be a bit more direct, she said.

“As long as we have that community on campus where we’re still allowed to have this club, and there’s still LGBTQ [and] DEI committees on campus … I still think that we can come back,” Miller said. “Being able to provide a safe space for any individual on campus [is necessary] especially trans individuals … making sure that they feel comfortable where they are, so that even if, like, when they go out into the city or something, they have to hide their identity, at least when they come back, they can be who they are.”

Miller urged the campus individuals to fill out the Bias Education Response Team’s anonymous reporting form, which can be found on the university website, if they see instances of discrimination or bias.

In the White House address, Trump said he has made efforts to protect In Vitro Fertilisation treatment centers, which public discourse questioned in light of the overturning of Roe v Wade — an umbrella ruling which protected birth control access, a constitutional right to receive an abortion and subsequently the right to personal privacy. Three of the five Supreme Court Justices who voted to overrule it were Trump appointees.

“Most strikingly until you’re a woman who’s had a tubal pregnancy or a miscarriage that needs medical attention, you’re not thinking of this reproductive health in the same way that one day you may need these protections even if you don’t right now,” Taylor said.