Norway extends draft to female recruits
Norway extends draft to female recruits
Norway will soon become the only country in Europe to extend its military conscription to women in peacetime, after parliament reached agreement on the issue on Friday.
All of the parties represented in parliament, with the exception of the small Christian Democrat party, agreed to back a proposal by the centre-left government for a "gender neutral" military conscription.
In practice, that means that Norway's mandatory one-year military service will be extended to women, probably as of 2015, according to the defence ministry's proposal.
"Norway will be the first European country to draft women in peacetime," a defence ministry spokesman, Lars Gjemble, said.
A number of other European countries have gone in the opposite direction in recent years, moving away from conscription towards professional armies.
http://www.thelocal.no/20130615/norway-to-extend-conscription-to-female-recruits