re: #1 Eclectic Cyborg
This is a difficult thing. Generally speaking, men have more upper body strength than women. That upper body strength is important when doing pull ups.
On the one hand this could be a case of the Marines simply wanting universal fitness requirements regardless of gender.
However, it could also be a sneaky way of trying to ensure as few women as possible actually make it to combat. I suspect for some in the higher ranks the idea of women in combat is a bad one.
Said higher ranks don’t like the idea of women in ground combat (they’re fine nowadays with women as combat pilots), but that’s much less sexism and more concern women won’t be able to handle the physical requirements of ground combat tasks. There is also a justified concern over the fate of a female Marine who falls into the hands of an Islamist enemy.