Conscription and sexism

Soviet conscripts, Moscow, 1941

Conscription, sometimes called "the draft", is the compulsory enlistment of people in a national service, most often a military service. Men have been subjected to military drafts in most cases. Currently only two countries conscript women and men on the same formal conditions: Norway and Sweden.[1]

Opponents of discrimination against men,[2][3]: 102 [who?] including some feminists,[4][5][6][7][8] have criticized military conscription, or compulsory military service, as sexist. They regard it as discriminatory to compel men, but not women, into military service. They say conscription of men normalizes male violence, conscripts are indoctrinated into sexism and violence against men, and military training socializes conscripts into patriarchal gender roles.[9][10]

While not all feminists are anti-militarists, opposition to war and militarism has been a strong current within the women's movement. Prominent suffragists like Quaker Alice Paul, and Barbara Deming, a feminist activist and thinker of the 1960s and 1970s, were ardent pacifists. Moreover, feminist critique has often regarded the military as a "hierarchical, male-dominated institution promoting destructive forms of power."[11] Feminists have been organizers and participants in resistance to female conscription.[12][13][14][15]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Berlatsky, Noah (May 29, 2013). "When Men Experience Sexism". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on January 5, 2015. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Stephen, Lynn (1981). "Making the Draft a Women's Issue". Women: A Journal of Liberation. 8 (1). Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  5. ^ Lindsey, Karen (1982). "Women and the Draft". In McAllister, Pam (ed.). Reweaving the Web of Life: Feminism and Nonviolence. New Society Publishers. ISBN 0865710163.
  6. ^ Levertov, Denise (1982). "A Speech: For Antidraft Rally, D.C. March 22, 1980". Candles in Babylon. New Directions Press. ISBN 9780811208314.
  7. ^ "CODEPINK Opposes Compulsory Draft Registration for All Genders". Codepink.org. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  8. ^ Sun, Rivera. "Women's Draft? Sign Me Up To Abolish War". Codepink.org. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  9. ^ Michalowski, Helen (May 1982). "Five feminist principles and the draft". Resistance News (8): 2.
  10. ^ Neudel, Marian Henriquez (July 1983). "Feminism and the Draft". Resistance News (13): 7.
  11. ^ Schaeffer-Duffy, Claire (June 28, 2016). "Feminists weigh in on draft registration for women". Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  12. ^ "No to female conscription – International Alliance of Women". 24 May 2015. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  13. ^ "Letters from draft-age women about why they wouldn't register for the draft". Resistance News. No. 2. 1 March 1980. p. 6.
  14. ^ "Gestation: Women and Draft Resistance". Resistance News. No. 11. November 1982.
  15. ^ "Women and the resistance movement". Resistance News. No. 21. 8 June 1986.