Percent of women in anti-war anti-draft activism

March 4, 2017 5:52 AM

Can anyone point me to helpful statistics both historically and at present about women's involvement in opposition to forced military service, the draft and general anti-war movements?

I see as a talking point that women oppose women being drafted, complete with statistics. This is something that MRA's and their ilk love to bring up. But what I am struggling more to find is; what is women's statistical opposition to ANY draft? I was able to find numbers that the general population overwhelmingly opposes the draft anyway but that number was not broken down by gender. It seems particularly unfair to frame women's opposition to women being drafted when I feel pretty confidant women have tended to stand up against men being forcibly drafted as well. (But obviously I don't really know?)

I see in the Wikipedia page that it tells me women were very involved, but it's left totally vague as to what percentage, what numbers. I know these numbers might not exist, but they might. If you know- let me know! Thank you metafilter!

posted by xarnop to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

Mod note: One deleted. OP, it's fine to briefly point out the couple of sources you've already identified, but this isn't the place for trying to start a discussion or posting your own editorial ideas about a topic. Basically, we need to stick to "ask a straightforward concrete question / get answers" format here.
posted by taz (staff) at 6:45 AM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Twenty-three percent of men and 14% of women favor the reinstitution of the draft." In 2007. From a quick scan it looks like the difference between men/women is beyond the margin of error.
posted by stoneandstar at 6:25 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Shittily enough, the draft was more popular in the lead up to the Iraq War! And at that time gendered support evened out a bit. So when the threat is "real" (for some clearly incorrect definition of "real") support for the draft goes up and becomes more uniform across the sexes, but in 2003 it was still less than 50%, and then dropped again after war became the ongoing reality.
posted by stoneandstar at 6:30 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Last comment, but you can't study the evolution of American feminism without thinking about the antiwar movement. So much of what we know as the modern feminist movement is a direct outgrowth of antiwar organizing. So it's ridiculous to claim that feminism is pro-war as long as women don't have to go. Women literally launched second wave feminism in the midst of antiwar activism.

An interesting pullquote from here:

"We do not want to be drafted into the army. We do not want our young brothers to be drafted. We want them equal with us."
posted by stoneandstar at 6:44 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]