President Donald Trump has frequently pointed to his hiring and promotion of women to counter criticism of his policies and personal conduct, and his selection of Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff made Wiles the first woman to hold that post. Yet as Alternet highlighted in its coverage of a report by the Guardian, one pattern has defined most departures from his administration during his second term: the people leaving have largely been women.

“In the space of just a few months, half of his eight female cabinet officials have either resigned or been fired. All have replaced by men,” the Guardian reports. “Several other women in his administration have also departed, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.”

The four cabinet seats captured by that count span homeland security, the Justice Department, the Labor Department, and the office of the director of national intelligence — portfolios covering immigration enforcement, federal prosecution, workplace policy, and intelligence assessment — meaning some of the most consequential roles in the US government have changed hands within a matter of months.

The exits have come quickly enough that on Friday, Trump was forced to deny claims that he was considering replacing Wiles. “She’s gonna be here for a long time,” he said. Whether Wiles outlasts the pattern the report describes is the most immediate question it leaves open.

Meanwhile, numerous senior male officials remain in their posts despite their own controversies. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has kept his job after reportedly endangering soldiers by sharing military developments and plans in chats on Signal, an encrypted messaging app, and after reports that he threatened to embarrass the nation by broadcasting a live feed of the shooting of a paraplegic man in a wheelchair. FBI Director Kash Patel, who faces wide-ranging allegations of intoxication and absenteeism, also remains in place.

The latest female departure was White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia, who was fired just five days after taking the job — a tenure even shorter than Anthony Scaramucci’s 11 days as White House communications director in 2017.

As for the firings, the Guardian reports that “the first domino to fall was former homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, who was the face of Trump’s mass deportation campaign until she was unceremoniously sacked on 5 March.” Her tenure was “plagued by controversy,” in large part amid national uproar over federal immigration enforcement operations that killed two US citizens in Minneapolis.

Next came former attorney general Pam Bondi, a Trump loyalist who was ousted in April after she “failed to sufficiently prosecute his political enemies,” according to the Guardian. Bondi had drawn criticism as “a hopeless partisan” when she refused to open an investigation into the misuse of the Signal messaging app by top intelligence officials. Her handling of the Department of Justice’s long-awaited release of the Epstein files — and her exaggerated claims that the administration would be releasing previously unseen information about Jeffrey Epstein — also landed badly with Trump’s MAGA base, which had been counting on Democrats being roped into the Epstein drama as Trump had promised.

Former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer stepped down in April, after a Department of Labor inspector general investigation led to a series of misconduct allegations, including an affair with a subordinate and drinking on the job. She was replaced by another man, Keith Sonderling.

Tulsi Gabbard was forced out of her position as director of national intelligence after being sidelined for testifying to Congress that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon — in direct contradiction to Trump’s argument for attacking Iran, a hugely unpopular war that lingers to this day. “Gabbard was replaced on an acting basis by Bill Pulte, a Trump loyalist with no previous experience in the intelligence sphere, and eventually by Jay Clayton,” the Guardian reports.

That arithmetic leaves the administration with four female cabinet officials where it had eight a few months ago. Whether the remaining four serve out the term is the question the administration’s next personnel moves will answer.

Another abrupt departure was that of Trump’s ambassador Kimberly, following weeks of reports that she had sought payment from a Trump donor in exchange for access to the administration.

“If you’re a man in the Trump administration, it seems that they reward misconduct,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said, according to the Guardian.

“I’m for women. I’m for men. I’m for everyone,” Trump said in a 2018 interview, as the Guardian noted. But not everyone gets to stick around.