Major media outlets are fawning over the fact that women are taking over top positions in the country’s largest weapons companies and in US defense and intelligence agencies.

From MSNBC to Politico to NowThis, a number of prominent publications are framing this ascent as an indicator of overall progress for women — and of increased equity in the organizations they are now leading.

Women are now the CEOs of four out of the country’s five biggest military contractors, writes Politico reporter David Brown, noting that, “across the negotiating table, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer and the chief overseer of the nation’s nuclear stockpile now join other women in some of the most influential national security posts.” Brown hails the developments as a “watershed” moment, citing Kathleen Hicks, senior vice-president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank whose top corporate funders are weapons contractors, as asserting that “the national security community” is more of a meritocracy than other fields.