Peering across a dense stretch of woodland outside of Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, with camouflage paint smeared across her face, 20-year-old Katrine scans the horizon for approaching threats.
After nearly four months of military training, the young soldier and the rest of her unit earlier this month completed their final exercises near the Danish army’s barracks in Hovelte, 25km north of Copenhagen.
Katrine and other female soldiers, who spoke on the condition that only their first names be used because of operational security, volunteered for military service earlier this year. Until now, that was the only way for women to be part of the armed forces.
Photo: AP
The Scandinavian country is seeking to increase the number of young people in the military by extending compulsory enlistment to women for the first time. Men and women can still volunteer, and the remaining places would be filled by a gender-neutral draft lottery.
“In the situation the world is in now, it’s needed,” Katrine said. “I think it’s only fair and right that women participate equally with men.”
Under new rules passed by Denmark’s parliament earlier this month, Danish women who turn 18 after today would be entered into the lottery system, on equal footing with their male compatriots. The change comes against a backdrop of Russian aggression and growing military investment across NATO countries.
Even from the relative safety of Denmark, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 casts its shadow. Lessons from the Ukrainian battlefields have even filtered down into their training.
“That makes it very real,” Katrine said.
Denmark’s gender-parity reforms were originally outlined last year as part of a major defense agreement. The program was originally expected to be implemented by early 2027, but has been brought forward to this year.
Colonel and head of the conscription program Kenneth Strom said the move is based on “the current security situation.”
“They could take part in NATO collective deterrence,” Strom said. “Raising the number of conscripts would simply lead to more combat power.”
Denmark, a nation of 6 million people, has about 9,000 professional troops. The new arrangement is expected to bring up to 6,500 annual conscripts by 2033, up from 4,700 last year.
Under Danish law, all physically fit men aged 18 and older are called up for military service, but because there are usually enough volunteers, there is a lottery system, so not all young men serve.
By contrast, women could only volunteer previously, making up about one-quarter of last year’s cohort.
The duration of service is also being extended from four to 11 months. Conscripts would first spend five months in basic training, followed by six months of operational service, plus additional lessons.
The move is part of a broader military buildup by the Nordic nation.
In February, Denmark’s government announced plans to bolster its military by setting up a US$7 billion fund that it said would raise the country’s defense spending to more than 3 percent of GDP this year.
Parts of the conscript program are being financed by the so-called Acceleration Fund.
“We see a sharpened security situation in Europe. We have the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. We have focus on the Baltic countries, where Denmark is contributing a lot of soldiers. So, I think it’s a general effort to strengthen the Danish defense,” Royal Danish Defense College researcher Rikke Haugegaard said.
However, Haugegaard said that there are many challenges, from ill-fitting equipment and a lack of additional barracks, to potential cases of sexual harassment.
“For the next year or two, we will be building a lot of new buildings to accommodate all these people. So, it will be a gradual process,” she said.
In 2017, neighboring Sweden instituted a military draft for men and women after its government spoke of a deteriorating security environment in Europe.
Norway introduced its own law applying military conscription to both sexes in 2013.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
CONFIDENCE BOOSTER: ’After parkour ... you dare to do a lot of things that you think only young people can do,’ a 67-year-old parkour enthusiast said In a corner of suburban Singapore, Betty Boon vaults a guardrail, crawls underneath a slide, executes forward shoulder rolls and scales a steep slope, finishing the course to applause. “Good job,” the 69-year-old’s coach cheers. This is “geriatric parkour,” where about 20 retirees learned to tackle a series of relatively demanding exercises, building their agility and enjoying a sense of camaraderie. Boon, an upbeat grandmother, said learning parkour has aided her confidence and independence as she ages. “When you’re weak, you will be dependent on someone,” she said after sweating it out with her parkour classmates in suburban Toa Payoh,
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
‘TOXIC CLIMATE’: ‘I don’t really recognize Labour anymore... The idea that you can implement far-right ideas in order to stop the far right is nonsense,’ a protester said Tens of thousands of people on Saturday marched through central London to protest against the far right, weeks ahead of local elections and six months after Britain saw one of its largest far-right demonstrations. Organized by hundreds of civic groups, including trade unions, anti-racism campaigners and Muslim representative bodies, Saturday’s Together Alliance event was billed as the biggest in UK history to counter right-wing extremism. A separate pro-Palestinian march had also converged with the main rally. While organizers claimed 500,000 had turned out in total, the police gave a figure of about 50,000. Protesters carrying placards with slogans such as
RSS