Let’s talk about the draft.
I realize it is probably not something you think about often — we are not technically at war and it does not look like the draft will be reinstated any time soon. Still, men between the ages of 18 and 26 are required to be registered for the draft. This extends not only to all 50 states, but also places such as Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands — and the fact that people who do not have voting rights may be required to serve in the military for the country they do not have a voice in is another discussion entirely. But why are women not required to register?
Not requiring women to register for the draft as men are required to do reinforces harmful stereotypes that women are not competent enough to be in the military. There is already a stigma against women being in the military at all, as some people believe women cannot be up to the physical standards that are required of the men. They believe women will not be capable of having their male colleagues’ backs.
Two years ago, all military positions became open to women. Clearly, then, the government believes that women are capable of fulfilling the duties and requirements of military positions. So why has the law not been changed yet?
The argument that women cannot fulfill the physical requirements is, honestly, ridiculous. The physical requirements should be gender-neutral, which they currently are not — although as of February it looks like the Army is headed in that direction. Many men who are registered for the draft cannot fulfill the physical requirements, yet they are still required to register. That’s it, plain and simple. Men and women both have all kinds of body types and abilities and skills. Thus, that argument is invalid.
Interestingly enough, some women actually are required to register for the draft. Male to female transgender women are required to register. Oddly, female to male transgender men are not required to do so. The Selective System Service judges people by what gender they are assigned at birth. This seems extremely discriminatory for a government whose own federal court ruled in 2011 that “discrimination against a transgender individual because of gender nonconformity is sex discrimination, whether it’s described as being on the basis of sex or gender.” Ruling this way and then upholding the law that requires transgender women to register for the draft due to the gender they were assigned at birth is downright hypocritical.
The law is still in place, and may be for quite a while. Constitutionally, however, this violates the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment explicitly states that all citizens are entitled to due process of law and equal protection of the laws. Equal protection. Requiring men and transgender women to register for the draft but not requiring women and transgender men to do so is absolutely, unequivocally not equal in any way, shape, or form.
As a woman, I know it can be pretty scary — at least for me — to consider that someday, if the draft is reinstated and I have been required to register, I could have to serve in the military. But as a woman, I also expect to be given the same rights as any man. And with equal rights comes equal responsibilities.
