I just read this article:

Including women in Selective Service could be the best way to prevent unnecessary wars

The author attempts to make the point that apparently once people realize our daughters and young mothers would be subject to the draft, we would rise up in protest against unnecessary wars. She doesn’t say exactly why we would be mad that women could be drafted, and she doesn’t tell us what wars are unnecessary. By using the term “unnecessary wars” she guaranteed that readers would rankle, but I’m not sure she thought through what point she was actually making.

Let me set aside the “unnecessary wars” part for a minute. In order to support this author’s point it requires us to believe that a draft of women would be unpopular because…? She doesn’t say why, but I think she means because as a society we have a deeply held view of what women are – nurturers for one, but also less physically strong – putting women into combat situations through a mandatory draft would be unfair to women because they are the weaker sex and are not equipped on the whole to be in a situation like that. Being in a dirty foxhole living next to death, having to kill as your main function is not a situation we think of a natural made job for a woman.

Then on the other hand, it appears she also supports “combat integration” because she says women have earned it, they are equal, etc. So what came through strongest to me is how her statement completely undermines the decision to put women into combat arms. I think that making women sign up for Selective Service is fair, but I thought it would be fair before we ever talked about combat integration. Now, I think it is absolutely necessary – if women will serve in all positions, there is no further reason not to have them sign up.