March 27, 2019: Women have been training to become Marines for decades, but only since 2016 have they been able to serve in combat roles alongside men — a requirement, when it was announced by the Department of Defense, that the Marine Corps petitioned. (They cited a 2015 study they had conducted, in which they determined that female Marines could not perform physically demanding tasks at the same level as their male counterparts; the Pentagon rejected that request.)

Today, women make up 8 percent of the United States Marine force, the lowest percentage of any military branch. Their challenges have been well-documented.

Lynsey Addario of the New York Times followed a handful of these women as they went through basic training — rappelling from a tower, learning rope climbing, martial arts, and completing courses in military history and Marine Corps values (honor, courage, and commitment). She tells their stories in words and photos.

Read more: Women Becoming Marines: 'I' Will No Longer Be in Your Vocabulary (nytimes.com)

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