Women and the Draft: Feminism and Selective Service in the US
Channel: Kristi Winters
Date: 2016-06-17

This item has occasionally popped up in the news and I thought it important to bring the elements of this political development, and critique of what various actors are doing and saying, to your attention. Add to your file 'Why feminism is still needed in the west.'

*Senate Votes to Require Women to Register for the Draft*

On Tuesday, the Senate approved an expansive military policy bill that would for the first time require young women to register for the draft. The shift, while fiercely opposed by some conservative lawmakers and interest groups, had surprisingly broad support among Republican leaders and women in both parties.

The United States has not used the draft since 1973 during the Vietnam War. But the impact of such a shift, reflecting the evolving role of women in the armed services, would likely be profound.

Under the Senate bill passed on Tuesday, women turning 18 on or after Jan. 1, 2018, would be forced to register for Selective Service, as men must do now. Failure to register could result in the loss of various forms of federal aid, including Pell grants, a penalty that men already face. Because the policy would not apply to women who turned 18 before 2018, it would not affect current aid arrangements.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1981 that women did not have to register for the draft, noting that they should not face the same requirements as men because they did not participate on the front lines of combat. But since Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said in December that the Pentagon would open all combat jobs to women, military officials have told Congress that women should also sign up for the draft.

...While most Republican senators — including Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, and the women on the Armed Services Committee — agree with the move, it has come under fierce attack from some of Congress’s most conservative members.

“The idea that we should forcibly conscript young girls in combat to my mind makes little sense at all,” Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas and the father of two young daughters, said on the Senate floor last week.

After voting against the bill on Tuesday, Mr. Cruz said in a prepared statement: “I could not in good conscience vote to draft our daughters into the military, sending them off to war and forcing them into combat.”

The debate will now pit the Senate against the House, where the policy change has support but was not included in that chamber’s version of the bill.

In April, Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California, offered a provision related to women and the draft for the House version of the defense policy bill to highlight the issue, even though he opposes the idea — then voted against his own amendment. It passed with bipartisan support but was stripped from the final bill in a procedural move.

...Conservative groups, which threatened to target senators who voted for the policy bill, reacted with anger on Tuesday to the bill’s passage. “Allowing our daughters to be forced into combat if there is a draft is a clear example of Washington placing more value on liberal social engineering than military objectives and preparedness,” one such group, Heritage Action for America, said in a news release.

- New York Times June 14, 2016

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House panel backs 'gotcha' amendment to make women eligible for draft
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/women-eligible-draft-house-222571

Left divided over women registering for the draft
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/279870-left-divided-over-women-registering-for-the-draft

House drops plans to make women register for draft
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2016/05/17/ndaa-house-women-draft-stripped/84481376/

Senate Votes to Require Women to Register for the Draft
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/15/us/politics/congress-women-military-draft.html?_r=0

Clinton backs requiring women to register for draft
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/283631-clinton-backs-mandatory-draft-for-women

Ocala Star-Banner - Mar 2, 1981
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19810302&id=_mdRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=igYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3483,1024446&hl=en

Conservative Leaders Oppose Call to Require Young Women to Register for Draft
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/sen-lee-i-do-not-want-see-my-15-year-old-daughter-drafted