European Country To Conscript Women For Military Service – Eligible In Lottery System Upon Turning 18

Denmark on Tuesday became one of the few countries in the world to make women eligible for conscription into military service.

Under a law passed by Denmark’s parliament in 2023, women are to join a lottery system, like men, upon turning 18.

Danish women who turn 18 on or after July 1st will be eligible for potential military conscription.

The Nordic country seeks to bolster its military due to rising tensions with Russia and heightened security concerns throughout Europe.

“Denmark expanded military conscription to women amid heightened security concerns in Europe. The move follows the government’s announcement of a $5.9 billion increase in defense spending,” Reuters noted.

Check it out:

Denmark expanded military conscription to women amid heightened security concerns in Europe. The move follows the government’s announcement of a $5.9 billion increase in defense spending pic.twitter.com/YBG9ON48Am

— Reuters (@Reuters) July 1, 2025

More details from Reuters:

Until now, women, who last year made up around 24% of all recruits, had been allowed to join the military on a voluntary basis.

“In the world situation we’re in right now, it’s necessary to have more conscripts, and I think that women should contribute to that equally, as men do,” Katrine, a recruit in the Danish Royal Life Guard, told Reuters without giving her last name.

In Denmark, volunteers are signed up first for conscription, while the remaining numbers are drawn up in a lottery system.

The armed forces are in the process of making adjustments in barracks and equipment better suited for women.

Social media users criticized the policy:

NEW: Denmark has begun CONSCRIPTING women into the military starting at age 18, alongside men, due to growing security threats from Russia.

The new conscription rules came into effect on July 1.

Europe is losing the plot pic.twitter.com/49xyg8TtIM

— ADAM (@AdameMedia) July 1, 2025

Breitbart noted:

The Danish Armed Forces Forsvaret said in a statement that conscripting women is a “historic change” and that the country must now “get used to the fact that every citizen capable of bearing arms, and not just men, is obligated to contribute to the defense of the fatherland.”

The national Chief of Defense, General Michael Wiggers Hyldgaard said the change “sends a clear signal that the Armed Forces are a modern community where everyone can contribute to the defense of the Kingdom of Denmark”.

Speaking at the time the change was first announced in 2024, Danish Defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen said the European security situation “has become more and more serious, and we have to take that into account when we look at future defense… a broader basis for recruiting that includes all genders is needed.”

As previously reported of Europe’s swing back towards conscription, which in many cases was reduced or ended altogether at the end of the Cold War.

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