TLDNR: Conversing with a friend about conscription and how is it anyway equal (if at all)

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Sorry if the title is click-baity but seeing the recent post on the front page thought I needed some clarity.

I was with my European friend l visiting her in her home country, ex soviet union but currently EU - I saw tons of military everywhere so I asked about conscription which went like this :

me: "So the men HAVE to sign up for the army when they finish school?"

her: "as far as I know yes"

me: "what about civil service, can they do that rather?"

her: "I think so, either way it's about a year or 6 months they must go"

me: "what about the girls? what do they have to do at 18?"

her: "nothing, what do you want them to do?"

me: "Study, work, I dunno - contribute somehow?"

her: "noooooo ways that they can choose to do"

me: "ah so they could actually just sit on their asses all day if they wanted to?"

her: "yea I guess"

me: "well thats not really fair is it?"

her: "but would you rather send the woman to the army?"

me: "no not but it's not fair when it feels like we're supposed to be striving towards equality"

It ended there & I'm not much bothered about it but it got me thinking, what is it like where you are? How was your gov / military dealt with these talks?

I'm curious to know what the current rhetoric regarding conscription vs equality - most of what I saw in terms of articles was mostly anti-male (more of a "stop referring to conscription, woman should never fight wars started by men, for resources controlled by men, when we already have to do the child-bearing and live with the wage gap" mentality )