Compulsory military service for women? Austria's dispute over equal service!
Compulsory military service for women? Austria's dispute over equal service!
Österreich - In Austria, the discussion about introducing conscription for women becomes more intensive. Erich Cibulka, President of the Austrian Officer Society, demands that the Bundesheer must become more flexible and that the most suitable people should be recruited regardless of gender. This debate is becoming increasingly important, especially since Denmark has announced that it is the second EU country to introduce compulsory conscription for women from 2026, while Sweden and Norway already have a similar model. In this context, Cibulka points out that conscription for women could promote gender equality within the armed forces, which 5min.at .
In Germany there is also a debate about compulsory military service for women. Inspector Carsten Breuer has proposed to expand conscription in order to combat the current shortage of skilled workers in the Bundeswehr. This would require a change in the existing military service model, which already provides for basic military service of six months and a voluntary extension of military service. The aim of these suggestions is to strengthen the Bundeswehr for the defense case. rnd reports of a need of around 100,000 reservists.
opposite positions in Austria
The Austrian Minister of Defense Klaudia Tanner, who is one of the critics of conscription for women, refers to the existing inequalities in many areas of life. Women currently have the opportunity to voluntarily do basic military service. Since April 2023, 489 women have chosen this path, 282 of whom have already been added. In comparison, around 16,000 men do their basic military service every year. Historically, the first soldiers moved into the Bundesheer in 1998; There are currently 810 active soldiers whose proportion is only 4.6 %. Their goal is to increase the proportion of women to 15 %, which illustrates the urgency of the current debate.
The discussion about possible changes in basic military service also includes the possible extension from six to eight months, which an expert commission is currently examining. Miliz representative Erwin Hateser supports this idea due to the changing security policy situation. An alternative model that suggests Cibulka is called "Austria year", in which young adults can choose between military service and community service. Currently 11,798 men perform civil service, which primarily includes social areas such as rescue, geriatric care and disabled people.
international perspectives
A look at the international practices shows that in some countries there is already a compulsory conscription for women. In Israel, men have to do military service for three years and women for two years, while in Eritrea and Cuba both genders are used to compulsory military service. Norway has introduced a gender -neutral military service since 2015, and in Sweden this applies to everyone between the ages of 16 and 70, since compulsory military service has already applied there since 2017. The example of Germany also illustrates the complexity of the debate, since an expansion of compulsory military service to women requires a change in the Basic Law that requires a two -thirds majority in the Bundestag and Federal Council
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