SDP wants to place men and women on equal footing in conscription

Party opposes joining NATO during next parliamentary term

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The opposition Social Democratic Party is putting forward the possibility of making both men and women subject to mandatory national service of some kind. Currently, military service is mandatory for men and voluntary for women; men who are conscientious objectors also have the option of alternative civilian national service.
      Considerations behind the proposal include the declining number of conscription-aged Finns and the expectation of gender equality.
     
The idea would be for mandatory service for both men and women, which could be implemented as traditional military service, or as non-military civic work of some kind.
      SDP chairwoman Jutta Urpilainen said during her party’s security policy seminar, that women could benefit from a two-month first aid course, for instance.
      Urpilainen said during a break at the seminar that she does not feel that women should be forced into either the army or alternative service.
     
Special researcher Pirjo Jukarainen of the Tampere Peace Research Institute supports the idea that military service would be gender neutral. She feels that the current system is unfair to men.
      The same view is taken by the men’s division of the consultative committee on gender equality affairs of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
     
Jukarainen mentioned the response that the Defence Staff gave to UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on the position of women in crisis management.
      In connection with the resolution, there was a proposal that Finland, Sweden, and Norway should establish a common military observer patrol for Afghanistan, which would also include women. The Defence Staff rejected the idea, saying that women have little interest in crisis management operations, and that such a project "could pose a threat to operation security”.
      “This shows the attitude of the defence administration; women are a problem”, Jukarainen says.
     
The civic service envisioned by the SDP could include civilian crisis management, first aid, care work, or other tasks that help society.
      “In the next Parliamentary term it would be good to draw up a thorough study on civic service affecting the whole age group - the need for it, and the possibilities of implementing it, as well as the costs, with a primary view of the need for military national defence”, the party wrote.
      At the SDP seminar, former Chief of Defence Gustav Hägglund was not enthusiastic about the idea, but did not reject it out of hand.
     
SDP Parliamentary group leader Eero Heinäluoma noted that the initiative for civic service came from the party’s youth.
      Heinäluoma emphasised that the idea is intended as an opening for discussion, and is by no means a ready policy statement.
     
At the seminar, the SDP also took the view that Finland should not join NATO during the next parliamentary term.
      Chairwoman Jutta Urpilainen noted that while NATO membership would not pose a danger to Finland, she feels that it also would not bring any added value.
      Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre), who visited the seminar, did not want to rule out the NATO option. He also said that he does not expect the matter to become an issue in next year’s Parliamentary elections.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Conscription army - strategic necessity, or fixation of national identity? (30.3.2005)
  Poll: most Finns accept male-only conscription (12.5.2009)
  Researcher: “Male conscription discriminates against both men and women” (28.4.2009)
  Defence and equality ministers do not see male conscription as equality issue (28.4.2009)

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