Marine Brigadier General Loretta E. Reynolds, originally from Baltimore, just became the first woman to take command of Parris Island in South Carolina.

News of women occupying positions which were formerly the exclusive domain of men is thankfully becoming commonplace. But, according to an article on Reynolds’ promotion in the Washington Post, the military yet has much ground to cover in gender equality—it was only last year that the Navy announced it would allow women to serve on submarines; women cannot yet join the Navy SEALs; neither may they serve in ground-combat units, though both of these bans will likely be lifted in the near future.

But don’t get the wrong impression. The hundreds of thousands of female troops who have been deployed overseas in recent years have certainly been in harm’s way, and many have seen combat despite the nominal ban.

In her statements to the press, Reynolds has presented her gender as utterly irrelevant to her appointment as commander of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, saying plainly, “I was the right person for the job.”