Four out of ten women reject mandatory draft
A survey by Voxmeter for Ritzau indicates that 53.2% of respondents support extending conscription to women, while 32.6% oppose it and 14.2% are undecided. There’s a gender gap, with 67.4% of men backing women’s conscription versus 39.3% of women in favor. Michael Nebeling Petersen, a lecturer at the University of Copenhagen, isn’t surprised by the results, attributing it to entrenched views that associate the military with masculinity. Thit Gaarskjær Jørgensen, a Ph.D. candidate at Aalborg University, concurs, pointing out women’s different historic roles in warfare and their difficulty in envisioning themselves in a male-dominated military. She also mentions the negative impact of recent scandals in the Danish Defense involving harassment and poor working conditions on women’s perception of a military career.