Norway is starting to implement female conscription in the name of equality, and surprise surprise, feminists tried (in vain) to stop it. Anyone who still has doubts as to what feminism stands for should do himself a favour and read this article.
- The Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights, NKF, is not opposed to women voluntarily seeking a career in the military if they want to, and the way the system works today, women in fact have the same opportunities as men to join the armed forces. Conscription is something else – it includes everybody and entails the use of force. NKF strongly warns against the exertion of pressure to get women into the military and particularly the introduction of female conscription.
Their idea of equality is that women should have all the rights that men have, but not the same duties.
- To ensure gender equality it is important in many cases that women and men are treated equally. But they should not necessarily be treated equally in all situations. In some cases, the underprivileged gender must be favoured to be able obtain similar results.
They really couldn't make it any more clear than this. Equal opportunity is fine unless men do better than women, in which case it's okay to give women an advantage in order to ensure an equal outcome. But even an equal outcome is only to be sought in those situations where women have something to gain from it. Being forced to join the military is obviously not a desirable outcome, so the government should forget about the notion of equality altogether, and just do what's best for women. Feminism in a nutshell, gentlemen.
One of the many reasons I started referring to myself as an egalitarian instead of a feminist. I don't think that just men should have to sign up for selective service here in the US when they turn 18. Why should we get special treatment and get a pass on that? If we want equality then we've got to take the bad with the good.
It's nice to see girls starting to distance themselves from feminism. One of the things I don't like about feminists is their arrogance in assuming they speak for all women, and unfortunately this assumption has largely gone unchallenged until recently. As the preference of women shifts towards egalitarianism, the only people who still call themselves feminists are going to be the extremists, who will only further alienate women from their ideology. At times like this I think we might be seeing the beginning of the end for feminism.
Just because one feminist group supports inequality in this manner doesn't mean that all feminists feel the same on this issue. Why not abolish conscription altogether? There are a wide variety of beliefs that fall under the umbrella of feminism, plenty of which are focused on not just making the world a safer and more equitable place for women, but also in discarding gender roles that hurt both genders. One such gender role is the stereotype that men are more brutal and less nurturing than women which leads to male-only conscription and also stigmatizes men who take on the stay at home father role and while their wives take on the role of primary earner. That being said, I'm personally undecided on the issue of conscription. While it's great not to force unwilling participants into war, the military seems to prey on the underprivileged in our society. By having an all volunteer military we have much less protesting against the rush to war such as the conflict in Iraq because nobody has to fear getting dragged into it who didn't already sign up for the military in the first place. I think having the draft brought more accountability to the government when it decided to go to war and while it didn't prevent us getting bogged down in nasty conflicts, it did force the government to think harder about the cost of the human lives it was sacrificing. I do think the draft should be equal, personally, in whatever direction it goes in. If we really need people to serve so badly that the draft is reinstated we should pick the best and brightest of 100% of our population, not the best out of 50%. Women may be physically weaker on average but there are many positions where strength doesn't matter such as linguistics, computer security, the medical field, and drone piloting, just to name a few. Aside from that, there are plenty of fit women who can far outperform the out of shape couch potatoes when it does come to physical tasks.
The article states clearly that it wasn't just one group: The reason for male-only conscription is that men are better soldiers, and young women can't be sacrificed otherwise the population will collapse in the span of one generation. It's a logistical issue, gender roles have nothing to do with it. Feminism actually tries very hard to reinforce this stereotype, by constantly portraying men as the abusers and women as the victims in cases of domestic violence, and by working to devalue the role of fathers in children's life.But feminist organizations protested against female conscription, among others the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights (Norsk Kvinnesaksforening, NKF, the Norwegian Section of the International Alliance of Women, IAW) and the Norwegian Section of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, WILPF.
One such gender role is the stereotype that men are more brutal and less nurturing than women which leads to male-only conscription
One such gender role is the stereotype that men are more brutal and less nurturing than women