Norway introduces compulsory military service for women, bunking them in mixed dorms with men
Source: AFP
SETERMOEN MILITARY BASE, NORWAY (AFP) - They sweat together, they sleep together: In the name of gender equality, Norway has introduced compulsory military service for women, even bunking them in mixed dorms with their brothers-in-arms.
The military's gender balance is not entirely equal yet, but almost a third of the Norwegian army conscripts born in 1997 were women this summer.
At the Setermoen army base just above the Arctic Circle, new recruits in an armoured battalion are learning to handle assault rifles for use on combat missions. Here and there, long ponytails stick out behind the recruits' caps.
"It gives me a bigger recruitment pool to choose from," the battalion's chief, Lieutenant Colonel Pal Berglund, says of the new gender equal draft.
Read more: http://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/norway-introduces-compulsory-military-service-for-women-bunking-them-in-mixed-dorms
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So, no equality in draftees' haircuts?
(kidding. I don't know if Norway's army gives the same fine haircuts as the U.S. Army)
