X-Post from KiA

From this story I heard on NPR. Basically they ask three women about what they think about women being required to register for the draft. They then do everything in their power to dance around the question:

MARTIN: Interesting. So while I have you all here, on a somewhat related topic, I wanted to ask you about the House Committee on Armed Services voted this week to approve a measure requiring women to register for the military draft. Currently that's something that's only required of American men when they turn 18. Karlyn, you've looked into opinion polls for this, too. How do people feel about this?

BOWMAN: Americans clearly do not want to reinstate the draft. So this action this week by the House is going to be something I think people will talk about a great deal. And I don't think men and women are split about whether or not they think the draft should be reinstated.

MARTIN: And they don't.

BOWMAN: But overall they don't want the draft reinstated.

MARTIN: But what about women? Do they think if the draft is - they don't want the draft reinstated, but if women have to sign up, too, how do they feel?

BOWMAN: I haven't looked at the subgroup breaks on that at this point, but there's more opposition than support.

MARTIN: Interesting. And Jolene, you have five boys.

IVEY: I do.

MARTIN: And I know some of them are draft-age eligible. And they all had to go down there and make that run. I guess I'm sure they do it online now.

IVEY: Right.

MARTIN: What do you think? Do you know how they feel about this, or how do you feel about this?

IVEY: Well, I don't know how they feel about it. I just tell them you better go ahead and fill that out or you'll get trouble. So I'm not happy about it, but we do follow the law. But I think that women should have to sign up and register when we get equal pay. So until that point, I just don't see why we should have to do it.

MARTIN: Interesting. Interesting. Lisa, what about you? You're closer to this than I am, so...

BONOS: I think that's an interesting point, Jolene. I've also - I spent a year living in Israel, where both men and women do have to go through mandatory military service. And I think it does keep the country more invested and more cognizant of the risks that it's taking in going into war when everyone has to register. So...

MARTIN: There are exceptions though.

BONOS: Yeah.

MARTIN: I mean, ultra-Orthodox women I don't believe...

BONOS: Yeah.

MARTIN: ...Have to.

BONOS: Yeah, but that's a small minority.

IVEY: Do they have equal pay?

BONOS: I don't know what that would be.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: Tracy, what do you say to this?

STURDIVANT: I mean, Jolene makes a really great point. Keeping men and women in different occupations and industries is a big part of why the gender gap exists. So, you know, for white women it's .70 cents on the dollar to a white man, .60 cents for black women, .55 cents for Latina. So the military is no different in terms of an industry. If you continue to separate men and women, you're going to continue to perpetuate that gender gap.

MARTIN: So what do you - so yes or no?

STURDIVANT: So - well, I'm not a fan of the draft. So, you know, like many Americans, no one wants to see that reinstated. But the fact is many women actually join the military because it helps their sort of economic stability. So I think this is going to be an interesting dialogue that happens in the country around, you know, whether it's - should we reinstate the draft, you know, how that impacts people's economic bottom lines and then to her point, you know, how does this impact the sort of pay gap overall.