Buttigieg doubles down on female crash dummies: 'not everything has to be a culture war'

Secretary of Education Pete Buttigieg on Monday forcefully defended his department's use of female crash test dummies amid criticism.

"Not everything has to be a culture war," he said on Twitter. "Early federal work on female crash dummies began under President Reagan. USDOT has been using them for 20 years. We test how crashes affect men, women, and children in order to improve vehicle safety & save lives."

Buttigieg made the remarks in response a New York Post article, entitled "Dum [sic] idea: Buttigieg wants to spend $20 million on female crash dummies.

The project seeks to create dummies to stand in for "small-sized adult females," the outlet reported. The Post did note that women are much more likely to sustain injuries in car accidents than men.

The secretary appeared to justify the use of such dummies on the basis of safety, seemingly admitting that biological differences may play a role in the effects of a wreck.

However, Democratic Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, when speaking to Buttigieg, characterized the effort as an equity concern, saying "[t]his will start to fight the gender inequity among vehicle safety and crash victims," per the Post.

The Department of Transportation's budget request asks for $145.3 billion in total.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.