I ran across this Washington Post piece that discusses it. A 1981 Supreme Court decision - Rostker v. Goldberg - held that women did not have to register for the draft, and that ruling seems to still be in place today.
The Pentagon and the Selective Service, which keeps a roster of prospective male enlistees, say it’s too early to tell.
“Until Congress and the president make a change, we will continue doing what we’re doing,” Richard S. Flahavan, a Selective Service spokesman, said Friday. Namely, that means sticking to registering only male U.S. citizens and permanent residents ages 18 to 25.
It was quite the debate at the time, some men argued that is women could not be registered, then the entire process was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court stated that the fact that women could serve in combat justified their exclusion from the registration:
In a 6 to 3 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that it was acceptable to exclude women. Writing for the majority, Justice William H. Rehnquist determined that “the fact that Congress and the Executive have decided that women should not serve in combat fully justifies Congress in not authorizing their registration.”
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Thurgood Marshall chided the ruling, saying it “places its imprimatur on one of the most potent remaining public expressions of ‘ancient canards about the proper role of women.’ ”
Greg Jacob, the policy director of the Service Women’s Action Network, which advocated for the repeal of the ban on women in combat, said his organization thinks women ought to register with Selective Service.
“Part of equality means women have that shared responsibility,” he said.
Registering for the draft does not means that all women - if drafted - would have to serve in combat I assume, just those physically able. This issue complicates the question of gender equality.
- Women and the Draft in America.
