When War Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of generals and admirals to Quantico, Virginia, last September, he announced that changes were coming quickly to the newly renamed Department of War. His message placed physical standards and gender at the center of the gathering.

“No more division, distraction, or gender delusions,” Hegseth said. “We are done with that shit.”

Hegseth said standards would determine what happened next. “I don’t want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape or in combat [units] with females who can’t meet the same combat arms physical standards as men,” he said.

That same day, Hegseth signed a directive requiring fitness standards applied regardless of sex for all troops serving in combat roles. The military services began putting the new standards into effect earlier this year.

Marines complete two fitness tests every year, with a physical fitness test held in the spring and a combat fitness test held in the fall. The spring test includes a 3 mile run, an abdominal plank, and a choice between pushups and pullups.

In January, the Marine Corps began grading combat Marines under the same standard regardless of sex for the annual physical fitness test. Marines in combat specialties must earn at least 210 of the 300 available points.

Data from the Marine Corps spring physical fitness test, obtained by The War Horse, shows that more than 90% of female Marines who have completed the test met or surpassed the required score. The early numbers offer a clear result under Hegseth’s tougher policy.

Kris Fuhr, cofounder of the Women in the Service Coalition, said that outcome did not surprise her. “The women prepare and they train and they’re ready,” she said.

Women in combat specialties were already required to meet the same standards as men for their specific jobs, based on the physical demands of fields such as infantry or artillery. The broader fitness tests serve another purpose by measuring the overall fitness of service members.

Historically, those broader tests were scored according to standards based on age and sex. Hegseth has argued that grading women against the male standard will preserve the fitness level needed for combat, although the new policy continues to allow benchmarks to decline as service members age.

The Marine Corps says 422 women currently serve in combat specialties, and 400 of them have taken the test under the new scoring rules. Experts warned that the relatively small sample cannot predict how women in combat positions throughout the military will perform.

“Women are a small part of the Marine Corps. Women are a smaller part of combat arms within the Marine Corps,” said Kyleanne Hunter, a Marine veteran who leads Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

“Making generalizable conclusions from this is very, very difficult,” Hunter said. But she added, “It still tells the story that the vast, vast majority of the women who are in this career field are doing just fine.”

Marine Corps data shows that 91.38% of women in combat arms who have taken the test since January met or exceeded the required threshold. Among men in combat arms, 96.53% met or exceeded it, while The War Horse has requested comparable Army data but has not received it.

When the Pentagon moved to open every combat job to women, the Marine Corps sought an exemption. Service leaders cited a study they said showed that units integrating women performed worse than units consisting only of men, but critics challenged the study and the secretary of the Navy rejected the request.

During the following decade, hundreds of women served in Marine Corps combat positions. Thousands more served in Army infantry units, while a smaller number completed the demanding process required for special operations roles.

Hegseth has repeatedly questioned whether women in combat jobs face sufficiently demanding standards. Within months of his confirmation, he ordered a review of combat arms standards, then directed military services to establish the same fitness standards regardless of sex for troops in combat positions.

The Pentagon also began another review of women in combat and selected the researcher behind the previous Marine Corps study to lead it. “I think his mandate is based on the belief that women can’t meet men’s fitness standards within combat arms,” Fuhr said.

Hunter said the results are encouraging, but she warned that the new scoring rules could still disadvantage women. “It can create unnecessary promotion problems,” she said.

A female Marine who previously would have received a perfect score of 300 under the female scale would earn roughly 240 points for the same performance under the male scale. That score comfortably clears the requirement but could affect performance evaluations because it is substantially lower.

“If you tell a woman what the standard is, she will do the work to not only meet it, but often exceed it,” Hunter said. So far, the Marine Corps figures show most women in these roles are doing exactly that.