When I was the commanding officer of the 4th Recruit Training Battalion at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, I repeatedly raised concerns to my chain of command about the gender bias and sexism my female Marines, recruits, and I faced. The recently relieved commander of 3rd Battalion was well known for making derogatory comments about women, going so far as to call my recruits “distractions” on hikes and telling the regimental commander he saw “no value” in integrating training events. My drill instructors and recruits repeatedly heard male drill instructors and senior enlisted depot staff insulting women, calling our battalion the “4th Dimension.” It was all too common for male drill instructors to tell the slower male recruits that they ran like “girls” or were “pussies.” Worse, recruit graduation data demonstrated that female recruits had been allowed to underperform for decades compared to their male counterparts. As women, they were simply expected not to excel or be able to compete with their male peers.