Most roles in the military require ad hoc applications of brute strength to do the job competently even if it isn't per se part of the job description. This includes things like operating vehicles, desk jobs, etc.

In the military context, almost every job must be performed in the field or in the absence of (working) machinery. You still must be capable of carrying the equipment load-out for your role on your back. The inability of women as a class to do this effectively has been a longstanding issue. Everyone is at risk of being thrust into combat situations due to circumstances beyond anyone's control. The "rear echelon" can suddenly find themselves no longer in the rear.

All of which is separate from the question of the use of conscription generally.

In the US there is a separate gender-agnostic authority that allows the US to impress someone into non-military service for (IIRC) 6 months.

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samus 2 days ago | parent [-]

None of this disqualifies women from service. Of course, special forces and frontline troops will face these challenges day-to-day, but women who can't handle this will simply wash out from those. Which is not a big problem; only a tiny percentage of the military comprises these.

	▲	jandrewrogers 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		It affects a far broader swath of military roles than you are imagining and you are regularly required to assume secondary roles, few of which are anything like their civilian counterparts. This is the issue long-recognized by the military from experience. It isn’t an arbitrary disqualification of women. Even combat units don’t deal with these challenges day-to-day but they occur often enough for most roles that you need to be capable. I am against all conscription on principle but I know why militaries made the pragmatic choice to selectively target men even if I don’t agree with it. These things have been studied to death, been put into practice by many countries, and the solutions are all quite bad in their own way. Strict gender-blind standards drives strong gender segregation by role which in practice produced adverse second-order consequences. Also political blowback in a number of countries because the roles most women could qualified for in practice were perceived as lower status. Unequal standards create a whole raft of other social and operational problems. To put it another way, all of these problems exist even in the absence of conscription.