An A&M professor has taken a firm stance against the proposal by two senior military leaders to require women sign up for the draft.
At a U.S. Senate hearing on Feb. 2 Gen. Robert B. Neller, the commandant of the Marine Corps, and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the Army chief of staff, said women should be required to register for the draft. Valerie Hudson, A&M political science professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, has concluded through her research in gender in politics that American women make enough of a sacrifice already by providing the next generation of Americans through childbirth.
“Women do offer to lay down their lives and their health that the nation may have a future,” Hudson said. “We haven’t seen this as a patriotic service on a par with men’s service, but I think that says more about our own values than it does about the reality of that sacrifice.”
Hudson said since 1776, vastly more women have died or have been injured in childbirth than men have died or been wounded in battle.
“Since 2001, approximately 5,000 American troops have died in Afghanistan and Iraq, and over that same period, at least 18,000 American women died incident to providing a future for the nation that these soldiers defended,” Hudson said.Neller said draft registration should only be dependent on age and physical requirements, not gender.
“Every American who’s physically qualified should register for the draft,” Neller said.
Sen. John McCain supported Neller’s claim in a statement to Roll Call earlier this month.
“As women serve in more roles across the armed forces, I support the recommendation of the Army Chief of Staff, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps that women should register for Selective Service,” McCain said. “It is the logical conclusion of the decision to open combat positions to women.”
Hudson said women’s sacrifices don’t stop on a physical level, but there are also economic sacrifices women make.
“Researchers also tell us that there’s a ‘mommy tax’ on a woman’s lifetime earnings if she chooses to be a mother, if she chooses to have a child,” Hudson said. “And that can amount to over $1 million over lifetime earnings. And the greatest risk factor for being poor in old age in the United States is to ever have been a mother, not a father.”
Hudson said in order to have an effective discussion on selective service registration for women, it needs to be bipartisan.
“This is a very important conversation, and I think both the Republicans and the Democrats are divided on these issues,” Hudson said. “But I think we need to talk about the sacrifices women are already disproportionately making before we come to any judgment on selective service registration for women.”