Remaining employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development were ordered to remove “gender-identifying pronouns” from their email signature blocks by 5. p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Friday.
This is to comply with U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order, which he framed as “Defending Women,” and signed on his first day in office. It stated that the government will only recognize “sex” as “an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female” and requires federal agencies to end anything related to “gender ideology.”
“USAID has reviewed all agency programs, contracts, and grants that promote gender ideology, and we continue to remove non-compliant related outward-facing media,” wrote the agency’s Office of the Administrator to employees in an email to staff this week, which Devex obtained. “Your cooperation is essential as we navigate these changes together.”
About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
