To have said that women should be drafted equally to men??

[Pukkajones]

Chatting to a group of friends about the state of the world etc and while in theory I’m against conscription and forced national military service I did say that I think it’s right that there is more equality in girls/women being treated the same as boys/men in the countries that have service.
One friend who has 3 teen girls really had a go at me and got very upset. I have a teen boy and teen girl. While I hate the idea of EITHER being forced to enter the military I think they should be treated equally ( roles allowing - ie some combat roles aren’t open to women) if it came to it. ‘it’ being an actual war with Russia and/or its allies.

it got VERY heated, even though I and another friend pointed out that there are many non-combat roles in the military. And that if we did end up in a World War we’d likely have a role in it regardless of sex or age.

YABU - only men should be drafted
YANBU - in the modern world both sexes should serve in the military.

This. Why should anyone’s children be sacrificed for a war they didn’t start.

I don’t believe anyone should be conscripted. In the past (WW1, WW2) conscripted soldiers were largely gun fodder, in some patriarchal regime’s violent excuse for massive wealth transfer.

However, from a purely biological point of view, if young women are conscripted equally in the case of a hands on, feet on the ground war, it would be disastrous, and population regrowth would not happen if large numbers of young women were lost. In cases like war with potentially large losses of life (my grandmother remembered the aftermath of WW1 and there being a huge gap of young men (18-35) because so many had died.

In theory I see where you are coming from and I don't think women should be exempt from the draft. However, in practice, I don't think it's feasible to draft men and women equally. Suppose you have a couple with children. What happens to the children if you draft both parents? Would you draft a woman who has just given birth? What a about a woman who suffers from really heavy periods? There are just things that just get in the way of applying all things equally to men and women. I don't think people should get punished for needing their individual circumstances to be taken into account when making policies around these kind of things.

I think the draft is a complicated and nuanced picture.

This

The most qualified for the role will likely be the way it works. Not many male primary teachers, for example. The low paid work is usually what we need most in a crisis, as we saw in Covid, and tend to be jobs men avoid.

Even if it means we get invaded by another country by force?

Precisely

If you have the stomach for it, the story of these poor women (and also some men) deserves to be more widely known. The consequences are still felt today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marocchinate

No idea what that means. That poster was joking, anyway.

Why don't we work on making sure women are equal when it comes to pay, employment prospects, representation in positions of power and influence, ability to go about our business without being sexually harassed or assaulted first? Then when we've achieved all that, we can worry about making sure our daughters get equal opportunity to die in a war with our sons.

And why are they men’s wars? If your country is being invaded, why should only men defend it?

Although many women didn't serve on active duty in the last war they did take on all the male roles at home, driving buses, lorries and trains, working in the heavy industries, farming etc, etc, while also keeping families together.

I do think conscription should be equal, if there was another world war it would be totally different from the last one. But women always did and always would do their share either way, it's not like the women were sitting around drinking cocktails.

Well said

I think forcing people to fight is wrong 🤷‍♀️

You think women started any of this?
Who runs Russia?
It's not women.

True that women occupy caring roles like teacher, nurse, carer. But men also occupy low-level technical jobs that are needed to keep the country going like plumber, farm labourer and electrician. There's no reason women can't do those jobs, too, but same goes for men doing caring jobs.

Agree completely. Heaven forbid it ever happens but it should be equal.

Women want equality until it's something they don't want to do. Can't have it both ways.

YABU. The sexes are different. There will be some women who have the physical strength to fight but they will be the anomaly. Men are bigger, stronger and more powerful. They are better placed to fight.

No, more women have died from pregnancy and childbirth related causes than men have died in war (just in recent history) by factors of hundreds. Until this maternal mortality rate drastically changes I don’t believe that woman should be conscripted.

Im all for equality but let’s start with improving women’s healthcare before we start forcing them to war!

Apart from that if men and women between the ages of 18 and 45 are conscripted, who the hell is going to be doing the rest of the work” The old and the disabled? I appreciate that 45+ isn’t old but there just won’t be enough people left in the country to keep it going.

You can’t pick and choose bits of equality, it’s either all or nothing.

Most 18 year old of either sex have few caring responsibilities nor do they deliver much in the way of "emotional labour" or "work in the home". The time for conscription equality is now - might even help with the rest.

Equality doesn't mean treating everyone the same.

It would be one way to create a baby boom.

Yes just sit about complaining about how hard done by you are, until the enemy arrive raping and pillaging and leave the survivors starving on the streets and then think maybe I should have helped a bit! Priorities change during a war.

As others have said though, it isn't equal if you get raped before you've even dispatched for war. Not equal if you are the one being assaulted because you are a woman.