Denmark intends to increase service terms and open up the military conscription to women for the first time

Copenhagen: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Wednesday that her country intends to boost the number of young people enlisting in the military by expanding conscription to women and lengthening the service period for both genders from four months to eleven months. “We don’t rearmament because we want combat. We want to prevent that, which is why we are rearming,” Frederiksen said during a news conference.

“Full equality between the sexes” is what the administration aspires to, she added.
Official data indicate that Denmark now has up to 9,000 professional soldiers in addition to 4,700 conscripts completing basic training. The goal of the government is to bring the overall number of conscripts to 5,000 by adding 300 more.
The nation is a devoted backer of Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion and a member of the NATO alliance.
It was emphasized by Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen that “Russia does not pose a threat to Denmark..”.
Lokke Rasmussen said, “But we will not put ourselves in a position where they could come to do that.”
For a four-month period, all physically fit males over the age of eighteen are drafted into the military. But not all young men serve since there is a lottery mechanism in place because there are enough volunteers.
There were 4,717 conscripts in Denmark in 2023. Among the cohort, women who volunteered for military duty made up 25.1%, according to government statistics.
The new approach will need a change in the legislation, which Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen indicated would occur in 2025 and take effect in 2026.
According to Lund Poulsen, the state of European security policy “has become more and more serious, and we have to take that into account when we look at future defense.”. He said that “a more versatile and more complete defense” will result from “a broader basis for recruiting that includes all genders.”
The idea, which is expected to get support from a majority in the Danish parliament, calls for conscripts to serve six months on operational duty after five months of basic training.
The government of Sweden, a neighbor, said in 2017 that security in Europe and the surrounding area was worsening, leading to the implementation of a military conscription for both sexes. In 2010, the Scandinavian nation ended mandatory military service for males, citing an adequate number of volunteers to fulfill its armed forces. There has never been a female military draft in history.
In 2013, Norway enacted legislation requiring military conscription for all sexes.