Last June 14, 2016, the U.S. Senate approved a bill that would require women to register for draft when they turn 18 which male citizens already do since the Civil War. This is not yet law as it will have to be signed by President Obama, but this can be the last restriction to be lifted for women to have full participation in the U.S. military ever since the Pentagon opened combat roles to women earlier this year.

If this becomes a law, the U.S. will be the 10th country that will require women to be drafted. Other countries are China, Eritrea, Israel, North Korea, Libya, Malaysia, Norway, Peru, and Taiwan. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed in the Senate that will see women to start signing up by the start of 2018.

The House of Representatives have passed their version of the NDAA last spring, but they omitted a similar provision for drafting women. This means that both houses of Congress will have to thresh out further details to reconcile their bills and whether the final approved bill that will be sent to the White House will contain the female draft provision. Conservative politicians have opposed this register for draft by women in the military but this time, the provision has bipartisan support in the Senate.

You might wonder why the U.S. Military, which has been an all-volunteer force since the draft was abolished in 1973, still requires men ages 18-25 to register for draft.  This is maintained so information is available when military conscription will be required in case the country will have to resort to forced conscription. This is maintained by the Selective Service System, a government agency, and men will need to register within 30 days once they turn 18 and inform the agency within 10 days if there are changes in the information they submitted such as a change of address. Failure to do so could lead to penalties such as losing federal grants for higher education.

Even if the both houses of Congress reconcile their bills and keep the provision on women, it is not guaranteed to become law as President Obama has threatened to veto the proposed NDAA. It is not because of the provision on women that he is opposed to but it is due the requirement that the Guantanamo prison remains open, which he promised to close down when he became the President of the United States of America.