Johanne Røisli was 19 when she was conscripted to join the Norwegian military, under a radical policy to draft women in the same terms as men.
In 2015, Norway became the first Nato member and Euro`pean country to introduce gender neutral conscription, and today, one in three of its conscripts are women.
“My life has changed quite drastically. I think many people relate to that,” Johanne tells The i Paper in a call from a military base.
Before being called up, the teenager was finishing high school and living a “young, free life”. She was considering a career as a teacher or police officer. But with conscription, things “switched up”.
“Most of your freedom is taken away from you because you have to [follow]… rules. It’s quite different from your normal life. But I found it pretty interesting, and I found myself enjoying the structure in the military and the discipline, and how you are always challenged to develop yourself in so many ways.”
In 2014, just over 13 per cent of those in initial military service were women, according to the Norwegian ministry of defence, but by 2024 this had risen to 32 per cent.
Three years after she was conscripted, Johanne is still in the military, and plans to stay for the duration of her career – with a break to study. “Yes, life has changed, but in a better way,” she says.
Around 60,000 Norwegian young people are eligible for conscription every year. They are required to fill in questionnaires and undergo physical tests where they are graded from one to nine, with a minimum score of three needed to pass. Then, 10,000 are selected based on motivation, suitability and the specific needs of the military at that time.
Johanne explains that departments with specific requirements have separate admissions and selection processes. Those who are called in for service are informed of their unit, length of service, physical and medical requirements, financial service allowances, rights and duties, and courses and training opportunities they may be offered.
Norwegian and British forces during Nato’s Cold Response military exercise in Norway earlier this year. Introducing any form of conscription would be controversial in the UK (Photo: John MacDougall/AFP)Johanne, now 23, was keen to join the conscription programme, training and preparing in the hope of being selected. She says she “always had a lot of motivation for it and saw the importance of doing the service”.
While not everyone is as keen, Johanne said the programme is generally seen positively by young people and perceived as a “valuable life experience”.
“Most of the people who are called up are actually motivated as well and want to do the service,” she adds.
The scheme lasts for 12 months, with three months of general training before specialising in one area of the forces – often focused on the security of military bases.
A typical day starts at 6am with cleaning, breakfast and inspections. Conscripts then move on to exercises and education – training in the woods or learning how to fire a weapon, for up to 12 hours.
The conscripts live in ten-person rooms on military bases. They have free time in the evenings and weekends, but can only go home once in the initial training period. “Even though life is kind of primitive, that’s what you bond over with the others,” says Johanne, who is a conscript representative. “The social part of the recruit period is exceptional, and it’s something that you can’t find anywhere else.”
Norwegian Home Guard soldiers during a military exercise above the Arctic Circle. On completion of their 12-month training, conscripts can choose to pursue a full-time career in the military or return to civilian life (Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP)There is support for those who don’t thrive in the military environment, Johanne says, but adds that it is difficult to quit except in the case of serious mental or physical health issues.
On completion, conscripts can choose to pursue a full-time career in the military or return to civilian life. Those who don’t stay on are equipped with additional skills and experience for their CVs, Johanne says.
“I think that every challenge that you meet in the military is in some way affecting you positively afterwards as well. So when you start searching for jobs as well, the market is very impressed with people who have joined and done the service.”
Former conscripts can be called up for refresher training until they turn 44, to ensure they retain “the skills and resources developed during initial service” and for the military to ensure there are “always resources available when needed”.
Gender neutral conscription ‘good for the military and society’
Norway has long led the way for female engagement in defence, becoming the first Nato nation to allow women to serve in combat positions in 1985. Women have been able to volunteer for national service in Norway since 1976 but were not mandated to serve.
In the UK, women make up 11.9 per cent of serving military personnel. Women were banned from serving in close combat units until 2016, and it was not until 2018 that they were allowed to apply for any role, including Special Forces.
Introducing any form of conscription, let alone for women, would be controversial in the UK and is not currently under consideration.
Some Norwegian women’s rights organisations opposed the move, saying women needed to be equal but not the same as men and that it added “new burden” to women who already did more labour in the home. Others have raised risk of sending women to a male-dominated environment, particularly given its well-documented issues with sexual violence.
Estonian teens do military training as part of their secondary school education. Several European countries have introduced or expanded military service programmes in recent years (Photo: Matthew Lucas/Channel 4 News)But advocates say it is needed to tackle the threat from Russia and upskill the population, and that it is discriminatory and wasteful not to recruit men and women alike.
Johanne believes the quality of Norway’s military has been improved by conscripting women, saying it changes the culture and brings in new ideas and a broader spectrum of talent.
“Sometimes they have some advantages,” she admits of her male counterparts. “They have longer legs, more muscles and stuff, but I think we women have the mentality that brings us a long way.”
It is a view reflected at the top of the force, with then-chief of defence General Harald Sunde saying in 2013 that it was not good enough to allow the military to draw on only half of the population for service.
Norway believes that gender neutral conscription also benefits life outside the military. The same year, then-defence minister Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen said Norway’s decision reflected a need for citizens to have the same rights and obligations regardless of gender – including the duty to defend their country.
A female Swedish soldier during a field exercise near Visby, Gotland, in 2022. The country brought back mandatory military service in 2018 (Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP)The Norwegian military is still “quite male-dominated”, Johanne says. “But I feel like in society, everyone agrees that this is important.”
Johanne said she would “definitely” advocate the model to countries like the UK. “We see now that Denmark are… recruiting them as well,” she says. “I think more and more countries are considering how this could be positive for them.”
What could the UK learn from Norway?
Amid the growing threat from Russia, several European countries have introduced or expanded military service programmes in recent years.
Lithuania, Sweden and Latvia brought back mandatory military service in 2015, 2018 and 2024 respectively, and France and Germany both recently introduced voluntary military service schemes.
This has led to growing calls for the UK to introduce a voluntary or mandatory military service programme from former defence officials.
General Sir Patrick Sanders, the then-head of the British Army, said in 2024 that the UK should “train and equip” a “citizen army” in the face of Russian aggression.
The UK is introducing a voluntary gap-year scheme for school leavers to experience a paid year in the Armed Forces – which The i Paper revealed details of last year – but has no plans for conscription.
The UK Chief of the Defence Staff has said that preparing for the Russian threat requires ‘the whole nation stepping up’ (Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty)Former defence minister Tobias Ellwood suggested the UK should look to its allies models for inspiration, predicting that the UK would have conscription within five years.
The UK has only ever conscripted men, and if it moves forward with a form of national service, may need to look to Norway’s gender-neutral model to answer tricky questions on female conscription.
The countries which conscript women
Denmark introduced mandatory service for women last year, saying that young women turning 18 after 1 July, 2025, could be drafted by national lottery starting in January 2026 if the military does not attract enough volunteers.
Around 25 per cent of Danish voluntary recruits were already women, according to the country’s armed forces.
Sweden has introduced gender neutral conscription; national service was abolished in 2010 but returned in 2018 to include women. Around one in five Swedish military personnel are female.
The Israel Defence Forces has conscripted women since its establishment in 1948, though they were originally drafted in non-combat roles such as nurses and instructors. In the 1980s, they began to instruct combat units as well as becoming electricians and technicians, and in 2000 Israel’s High Court ruled that women should participate fully in military service.
Today, one in five Israeli combat soldiers are female, with the figure rising tenfold between 2012 and 2024. However, women are still not assigned to 42 per cent of combat positions, including the majority of commando units.
North Korea conscripts women, with some estimates putting the proportion of female recruits as high as 20 per cent.
Eritrea conscripts all citizens aged 18 to 40, with service technically capped at 18 months but which in practice can be open-ended, according to the UK Government.
Morocco reintroduced compulsory military service in 2019 but it remains optional for women, with more than 13,000 women signing up in a single month.
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