IN her role as leader of the Marine Corps’ all-women boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., Lt. Col. Kate Germano was known as a demanding and at times blunt commander. She was also effective. Under her leadership, performance in physical fitness and rifle tests improved significantly, and so did retention rates for female recruits. Colonel Germano drove her recruits based on the belief that women would not be taken seriously as Marines until they could meet the same performance standards as men. That belief is widespread, and it is ingrained in Marine culture.

But on June 30, after complaints from some recruits about her aggressive leadership tactics, and conflicts with her own commanders, Colonel Germano was removed by her superior, Brig. Gen. Terry Williams, who said he had lost “trust and confidence” in her abilities. An internal investigation found no evidence of gender discrimination. But the real reason for her dismissal is in dispute, with many arguing that the commander ran up against a Marine Corps that still does not wholeheartedly accept women within its ranks.

The incident has forced the issue of gender integration in the military back into public view — especially in the Marines, the branch that has been most resistant to such change. But it has also revealed a flaw at the heart of the evaluative process being used to allow women into Marine combat roles. By focusing so intently on physical fitness, the corps is avoiding the real barrier to integration — the hypermasculine culture at its heart.

As a rifle platoon commander who served in the November 2004 battle of Falluja, I held the collateral duty of being my battalion’s “body composition officer.” It was my job to measure and weigh the overweight infantry Marines in our ranks, and there were plenty — all of them below standards. Plenty of female Marines I met who served in noncombat jobs were in better condition than these men and as fit as the infantry Marines who met standards. While the physical demands of serving in the Marine infantry are very real, fit men and exceptionally fit women can meet them.