Should women be conscripted in the event of a world war? Take our poll

01 February 2024 , 12:28

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A huge majority of the public - 72 per cent - say women should be conscripted, according to a YouGov poll. (Image: Getty)

Defence secretary Grant Shapps ominously says we're “moving from a post-war to a pre-war world”, while Britain’s most senior army officer General Sir Patrick Sanders has called for extra boots on the ground to help swell the UK's dwindling military.

While there is no talk of conscription at this stage, speculation is still rife about whether or not it will happen - and if it does, many Brits think women should be put in the line of fire, too.

According to a poll by data company YouGov, a huge majority of the public - 72 per cent - say women should be conscripted. This is made up of 42 per cent who think they should serve on the exact same basis as men, versus 30 per cent who think there should be some kind of restrictions on the roles they can perform (e.g. perhaps not serving in the infantry).

Those women of conscription age (18-40) are the most likely to say women should not be conscripted, at 19 per cent - although more than three times as many (60 per cent) think women should serve in the armed forces in some shape or form.

If you can't see the poll, click here

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Responding to the findings on Reddit, user WILDB1988 posted: "I am totally against conscription in general no matter what the circumstances are. If you're going to do it though it should be both, not just one sex."

Srichards said: "I don't think women should be conscripted. But I don't think men should either."

Skiamakhos: "Nobody should be conscripted. Put the Tories on the frontline, they want to fight."

ThistleFaun: "I think women should be conscripted because it's not right to just send all the blokes off to die."

Dependent_Break4800: "We should either see men and women conscripted or both shouldn’t. I don’t see why it wouldn’t include women. The army is more than just specific soldiers who need to be very physically strong, not that women can’t join that area if they pull their weight and more, but the army is more than just that, plenty of roles that you don’t need great physical strength for."

Will today's younger generation be willing to serve?

YouGov has also published other poll findings relating to a potential global conflict.

It asked 18 to 40 year olds their opinions in an effort to mirror the conscription age in both the First and Second World Wars, which was 18 to 41.

If a world war was to break out, 38 per cent of under-40s say they would refuse to serve in the armed forces, while 30 per cent say they wouldn't sign up even if Britain was facing imminent invasion.

In this age group, 1 in 14 (7 per cent) say they would join the armed forces if a world war broke out, increasing to 11 per cent if the British mainland was threatened. Others say that although they would not serve, they wouldn't resist conscription if the time came – 21 per cent in the case of a world war, and 23 per cent in the specific case that Britain faces invasion.

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*As tensions continue to simmer with an increasingly belligerent Russia, your Mirror carried out its own poll asking: "Would you support the British public being called up to fight?" More than seven thousand of you voted, with a huge 5,120 saying no they would not support such action, while 2,152 said yes, they would. More detail on the results can be found here

Paul Speed