Women in the Military: How a Handful of Republicans Killed the Female Draft

A reform that would have required women to register for the draft is dead, at least for now. The measure, which would have expanded the language of the Selective Service from “all men” to “all Americans,” initially sailed through with bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate versions of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). But in what Politico described as “a stunning turnaround,” a small group of conservatives in both chambers whipped up enough last-minute opposition to kill the provision’s momentum — a major win for military concerns surrounding combat readiness and social-conservative concerns regarding the cultural breakdown in distinctions between men and women.

The push for expanding the draft beyond men began soon after women were made eligible for combat roles in the military back in 2015. At the time, Republican opposition to women in combat was tepid; although some voiced concerns about the Obama Department of Defense rule change’s leading inevitably to a female-draft requirement, there was no coordinated GOP effort to act on those concerns. Many implicitly accepted the decision: “I’ve sort of, I guess, evolved on this issue, quite frankly,” Lindsey Graham told reporters. “If the military community feels that women are capable of doing this, then I will not stand in the way.”

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Nate Hochman

Nate Hochman was a staff writer at National Review.

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A reform that would have required women to register for the draft is dead, at least for now. The measure, which would have expanded the language of the Selective Service from “all men” to “all Americans,” initially sailed through with bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate versions of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). But in what Politico described as “a stunning turnaround,” a small group of conservatives in both chambers whipped up enough last-minute opposition to kill the provision’s momentum — a major win for military concerns surrounding combat readiness and social-conservative concerns regarding the cultural breakdown in distinctions between men and women.

The push for expanding the draft beyond men began soon after women were made eligible for combat roles in the military back in 2015. At the time, Republican opposition to women in combat was tepid; although some voiced concerns about the Obama Department of Defense rule change’s leading inevitably to a female-draft requirement, there was no coordinated GOP effort to act on those concerns. Many implicitly accepted the decision: “I’ve sort of, I guess, evolved on this issue, quite frankly,” Lindsey Graham told reporters. “If the military community feels that women are capable of doing this, then I will not stand in the way.”