Denmark to conscript women into armed forces for first time
Denmark to conscript women into armed forces for first time
The country scaled back its military after the Cold War, but is reassessing the situation in a changed security climate.
This is a great step forward for equality
66What a step, everyone should be a slave with no discrimination of sex
-16Have you ever been conscripted into a democratic army? I have been. We were very well taught which rights we have, what the rules of warfare are and when we are oblieged to disobey an order.
It's true, a conscript has less freedom than a not conscripted citizen. But if you really believe a conscript (in a democratic army) is even remotely comparable to a chattel slave, you should try reality instead delusional ideology for a change.
0
This is a barbaric practice.
But its nice that women are now included.
56I mean at least they're not sexist ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
9But it's* nice
5ur brbaric
4
That’s not uncommon in countries with universal military service. Israel does this, and I think Finland and Singapore might as well. Sweden’s limited conscription (it’s a lottery, and you get to decline, though unless you have a strongly held conviction to do so, it’s a breach of jantelagen to do so) is also unisex, IIRC, which I suspect is more what the Danish model will look like than the IDF.
45Finland
Norway, not Finland. Women have a duty to serve but so few are called up that it's kind of voluntary in practice.
18Nope it is uncommon. Equal conscription only has been a thing for a few years in exactly two countries: Sweden and Norway. Neither Finland nor Singapore conscript women. Israel has conscription for women but it's shorter.
15A (de facto) lottery was what made Germany suspend conscription because only pulling in a fraction of each cohort was considered a breach of equality.
9Yep, I was one of only roughly 15% of men in my cohort that had to do conscription or civilian service after leaving high school. The rest did gap years or did go to university directly. This was generally considered to be unfair. This is why now a "Allgemeine Dienstpflicht" is discussed by politicians, where everyone has to do some service to society for a year, but can freely decide whether it is military os civilian service.
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Singapore does not conscript women, it's a matter of much debate. 80% of military work is administrative and logistic work which women are definitely physically qualified to do (without even considering the plenty of women who are more physically fit than some men, who would also do well in other physical roles).
9What is jangelan?
7It's the typical phrasing of social pressures to not stand out in Scandinavia, drawing from a book where the author phrases the "rules" somewhat as a legal code. Tall poppy syndrome is an overlapping idea that might be more familiar to English speakers.
15I think it should be Jantelagen.
6
It seems really uncommon to me. I'm aware of only Israel doing this, while I know that Switzerland, Finland, Austria, Germany 15 years ago, when they still used the militia, and Thailand do not. In the US I believe only men have to register for the draft.
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Good, if service is a duty of citizenship all should be called to partake and where some may not be able to contribute the same for any number of reasons they should have a way they can as well.
I don’t like conscription, though as a citizen of a country looking at a civil war in the future I do see some benefits to all citizens being trained soldiers, but the duties of citizenship should be spread to all who can bear them. It ensures that none feel that they are more entitled to the rights and benefits of citizenship than others and is an act of a fair and just society.
7Sad story
-9Mandatory military service is slavery. Do not give up your freedom, do not serve corrupted governments and politician. Fight for justice not against it.
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-preparedness-the-road-to-universal-slaughter
-19What about compulsory education, is that imprisonment then?
14It is for many
-7
No, it is forced labor and indeed a serious infraction on human rights, but it's by no means slavery. Slaves can be sold and subjected to a bunch of other abuses.
Unlike slavery forced labor can be acceptable in certain conditions. I don't think conscription in Western countries falls under that. It's far too expensive (delaying people's entry to the workforce by a year should cost more than 2% of GDP and you can buy a lot of advanced weaponry with that much money) and in most places getting enough people into the military should be doable by offering more benefits. But in countries like Ukraine or in the West when we're talking about things like natuaral disasters it may be necessary to force people to work for the community.
14Ok. It’s worth adding that in Denmark you can be a conscientious objector and go work in a public library instead.
I mean, there’s slavery and then there’s “working in a public library”. I’m not 100% sure they are the same.
121: Libraries have absolutely been supported with slave labor in the past.
2: Forced labor is forced labor.
3: There is still a difference between a draft to defend your country from a fascist like Putin and being drafted to invade Vietnam. I wouldn't personally call the first slavery, but the second one is.
3
What about jury duty and compulsory voting?
1Based
-1