Anne Sofie, 21, poses for a photo during final exercises at a training area near the Royal Danish Army’s barracks in Hovelte, 25 kilometers north of Copenhagen, Denmark. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Women in Denmark who turn 18 after July 1, 2025, are now eligible for military conscription, as the nation moves to expand its armed forces amid Russian aggression and to meet new NATO expectations. Denmark joins Nordic neighbors Norway and Sweden as some of the few countries in the world to conscript women for military service.
Conscription in Denmark is a lottery system. Under the new rules, women who turn 18 will register with the government to have themselves assessed for physical and mental fitness, just like men. If they are deemed fit, they will draw numbers through the lottery. Those numbers determine whether they will serve if the armed forces can’t fill their recruitment quotas with enough volunteers. Men and women can both volunteer, and the remaining places will be filled by the gender-neutral draft lottery. The first lottery will be held in April 2026, the Defense Ministry said.
Women have been allowed to serve in Denmark’s military since the early 1960s but were not given combat roles. That changed over the decades. Women currently make up about 10% of the Danish Army, Navy and Air Force, while nearly a quarter of those who volunteered to join in 2024 were women.
In recent years, volunteers have filled virtually all of Denmark’s new military positions. However, as warnings grow that Russia may expand its aggression beyond Ukraine — and President Trump has urged NATO nations to ramp up their military spending — Denmark has pushed for a much bigger armed force.
The NATO ally has 6 million residents, but only about 16,600 uniformed employees in the military and emergency services, The New York Times reported. Under the new rules, the length of mandatory military service will be extended from four months to 11 months, starting next year. The first five months will be in basic training, followed by six months of service and more drills and education. Denmark also wants to boost the number of new recruits each year to 6,500 by 2027, from about 4,700 last year.
“The defense needs all the fighting power we can mobilize,” Gen. Michael W. Hyldgaard, Denmark’s defense chief, said in a statement in March when the change was announced. “This requires that we recruit from all over society.”
Hyldgaard and Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said in a joint statement that conscripting both men and women will allow the Danish Armed Forces to “attract the most talented and motivated young people in Denmark.” The agreement to include women in the draft was announced in March, and the Danish Parliament approved the change in June. Denmark also announced aggressive defense spending increases in January.
Denmark’s defense ministry has said the change ensures “full gender equality in conscription,” which was echoed by some Danish women in the military who spoke to news media in June. “In the world situation we’re in right now, it’s necessary to have more conscripts, and I think that women should contribute to that equally, as men do,” Katrine, a recruit in the Danish Royal Life Guards, told Reuters without giving her last name.
“Some will probably be very disappointed being chosen to go into the military. Some will probably be surprised and like it a lot more than they think they would,” fellow volunteer Anne Sofie said of the new female conscripts, according to The Associated Press.