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.

You’d be fighting for yourself, your family and frankly th 51% of women. If war comes you don’t get to opt out because you don’t like it.

No-one should be conscripted unless they're suitable. Many would just be going out there to die and would be completely ineffective anyway so a lethal injection would be better. God I hate humans.

This.

People can scream about equality but that always seems to mean that women have to do more whilst men just carry on. We talk about conscription in the world wars only in the context of men, as if women were sitting at home having a whale of a time, living it up. Women were the backbone of the war. They joined up to the ATF, WAAF, WRNS to provide logistical, administrative and domestic services, as well as being involved in things like code breaking. They joined the Land Army to keep agriculture going. Those who didn’t join up quickly re-skilled to take on work they were previously excluded from, (which they were paid way less for and duly excluded from again after the war) They banded together to look after each others’ children, and the evacuated children of complete strangers. They made sure everyone was kept fed whilst rationing reduced food availability, coming up with new recipes, many of which we still use today. They tended to wounded soldiers, dealing with some horrific situations. They even kept football going, which raised loads of money for charity and became way more popular than the men’s game (which led to it being banned for 50 years)

And they did all this not knowing whether their husbands and sons would be coming back. They didn’t have to face the horrors of the front line, but what they did wasn’t nothing, not even close.

In a world where we have made it possible for men to take extended paternity leave and barely any men do, and where women in the Armed Forces are routinely treated terribly by their male colleagues, it’s extraordinary that men will complain if women suggest conscription isn’t something they should face.

To be honest woman stayed out of it as much as they could in previous wars, the men wear themselves out and come back.

This one would be likely to be fought through cyber warfare for women I suspect. No army will want women being raped and murdered by their own side to be the talk of the war.

Reading this response made me cringe.

Do you think conscription is like working in a little office job with Teams calls or what?

Conscription involves pulling in people involuntarily for extra man power. There is no "career progression" for conscripts. You would likely be paid a minimum wage for your time before being released from service.

Do people think most women are sitting comfortably in a war? They held the country together doing roles men always said they couldn’t. Look at what is happening in Rwanda. The surgeon who had to put women and children together after rape.

If equality means treating everyone exactly the same I say let’s have men start giving birth - which you will need if you want to put all your young women in combat. That is the surest way to decimate your population. Good luck.

I thought childless women did get conscripted in ww2 for the war effort.

Id fully expect to get conscripted to something i could do.

Id not be thinking front line aa id be crap.

If there is a “draft” (which there won’t be) then yes, men and women of fighting age should
both be called up. If we accept women can fight on the front line, then there’s no rationale not to call up both.

It’s the same as other industries - we should be striving for an equal balance in other industries and jobs that are heavily dominated by men. Bricklaying, labouring, haulage, oil rig work.

If ANYONE is expected to fight for their country they need to be given a country worth fighting for.

I really don’t think you have any idea what the reality of a war where we conscripted people would actually be like?

it would be an existential war, a fight or we’re all actually dead war, not one you can opt in and out of, certainly not one we have been involved in since 1939.

thats the only time anyone, male or female will be conscripted. You won’t have a choice.

All combat roles (UK) are open to women, albeit to date, no woman has passed SAS selection.

Sure. If guaranteed female only units, accommodation and training. Otherwise high chance sexual harassment assault and rape as evidenced by far too many accounts of young female soldiers and officers.

As long as we can pick some to rape and assault as frequently as the women will be, let's do it. Completely fair. They also can't actually complain about that or ask for compensation or tell the media, deal?

That’s actually, no female has passed Royal Marines training.

Equality means equal - that's the good and the bad where it's physically possible.

No woman in their right mind would want to be surrounded by this level of toxic masculinity. Hearing what they do to women in other countries and when they've been retired is enough for most of us.

You are making an assumption of a level of toxic masculinity within the Special Forces.

I call myself a feminist and don’t believe in conscription. However if I did, I think it would make more sense to conscript men only.
We don’t have equality in our society, it would make more sense for women to be left to take care of the children etc.

Men and women should be equally conscriptable.

In a real war, though, there are many reasons why it makes sense to draft unequally.

Men are both physically stronger (relevant to many roles) and more disposable (crucial if you want to rebuild and recover after the war).

Plus the kinds of roles women did in wartime last time (without a draft) were absolutely crucial, not some fluffy opt out. War production, agriculture, administration, intelligence, morale, caring for children, injured and elderly. Without those you a) can’t fight and b) don’t have much worth fighting for.

If there is conscription, then of course women should be conscripted too. Obviously there shouldn’t be conscription for anyone.

In previous wars young men were often too thin, too ill ( TB etc), suffering from malnutrition to pass conscription. These days the majority would be too fat and too unfit. They'd need months and months of training to get them anywhere near useful.

I think you've had some of your information censored too, if you think that there is no chance of a man in a war situation suffering sexual violence.

This This This.

The bonkers idea that men and women would be equally useful as combatants as they would holding the fort at home is evidence of how cushty we really have it. And the awful truth is that even our fighting age men are not in great shape. I am absolutely against sending anyone anywhere into the meat grinder but the hard fact is that if you are not able or prepared to stand your ground you will lose sovereignty. A front line of women against a fit army of men is beyond ridiculous and only something entertained by idiots.

There is a chance. But men don't get pregnant. While sexual torture happens to men it is far less likely.

When the time for enlistment comes? I won't be eligible anyway.