KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Women cannot be drafted and are not required to register with Selective Service. Only men ages 18 through 25 must register.
- The FY2026 defense law, signed December 18, 2025, makes registration automatic for men starting in December 2026. It does not include women.
- Congress has tried to add women three times — in the FY2017, FY2022 and FY2025 defense bills — and dropped it from the final law every time.
- The Supreme Court upheld men-only registration in Rostker v. Goldberg (1981) because women were barred from combat. That bar ended in 2015, and in 2021 three justices said the question was Congress’s to settle first.
- The U.S. has never drafted women. The closest it came was a 1945 bill to draft nurses that passed the House and died in the Senate.
- What the Law Says Right Now
- Automatic Registration Starting December 2026
- Has the U.S. Ever Drafted Women?
- Why This Keeps Coming Up in Congress
- The Legal Landscape: Could Courts Force a Change?
- Women in the Military Today
- Arguments For and Against Including Women
- What a Draft Would Actually Mean
- Frequently Asked Questions
No. Under current law, women can’t be drafted into the U.S. military and don’t have to register with the Selective Service System. Only men register, and only registered men could be called if Congress ever brought the draft back. That has been the rule since registration began, and the newest change to it — automatic registration starting in December 2026 — still covers men only.
The question keeps coming back because women now serve in every military job, the original legal reason for a men-only draft no longer applies, and Congress has come close to changing the law more than once. Here’s where things stand, how we got here, and what would have to happen for women to be drafted.
What the Law Says Right Now
The Military Selective Service Act requires almost all male U.S. citizens and male immigrants ages 18 through 25 to register with Selective Service. The law is written in terms of “male persons,” so women aren’t required to register and aren’t subject to a draft. Men register within 30 days of turning 18 and can register late until they turn 26.
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For men who are required to register and don’t, the Selective Service System lists these consequences:
- Criminal penalty: failing to register is a felony punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and up to five years in prison. The same penalty applies to anyone who knowingly helps someone avoid registering.
- Federal jobs: men who don’t register may be ineligible for most federal employment.
- Job training: they can lose access to training programs under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
- Citizenship: immigrant men must register to be eligible for U.S. citizenship.
- State programs: many states require registration for state-funded student aid and state jobs.
None of this applies to women. For the full rules on who registers, how and when, see our Selective Service registration guide.
Automatic Registration Starting December 2026
The biggest change to Selective Service in decades came in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026. Section 535 of that law (Public Law 119-60) moves the job of registering from young men to the government. The House passed the final bill 312–112 on December 10, 2025, the Senate passed it 77–20 on December 17, and President Trump signed it on December 18, 2025. The change takes effect one year after enactment, in December 2026.
Supporters pitched the change as a way to save money and get a more complete list. Selective Service costs about $30 million a year, and much of that has gone to outreach urging men to sign up. Registration also lost one of its biggest sources in 2022, when the option to register was removed from the federal student aid form; that form had accounted for nearly a quarter of past registrations, Military Times reported. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Pennsylvania Democrat and Air Force veteran who sponsored the language, said it would “rededicate resources” toward readiness and mobilization.
Under Section 535, Selective Service must try to register every “male person residing in the United States, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six” using data from other federal agencies, and it can require those agencies to share the records it needs. Selective Service has described the change as one that “transfers responsibility for registration from individual men to SSS.”
The rules to carry it out aren’t final. Selective Service sent proposed regulations to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on March 30, 2026, and withdrew them on July 23, 2026. Until a working system is announced, men turning 18 should keep registering themselves at SSS.gov, which takes a few minutes.
What matters for this question: the new law covers men only. It doesn’t add women to registration, and it doesn’t bring back the draft. It changes how names get onto the list, not who is on it or whether anyone is called.
Has the U.S. Ever Drafted Women?
No. Every U.S. draft, from the Civil War through Vietnam, called men only. Women served as volunteers — as nurses in both world wars, and in the women’s branches created during World War II — but none were conscripted.
The country came closest in 1945. Facing a shortage of Army nurses, President Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress in his January 6, 1945 State of the Union address to draft nurses. The House passed the nurse draft bill 347–42 on March 7, 1945, and a Senate committee approved it later that month. The full Senate never voted. With the war in Europe ending and nurse enlistments rising, the War Department asked the Senate to shelve the bill in late May, and it died, according to HistoryNet.
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The question returned in 1980, when President Jimmy Carter restarted registration after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Carter asked Congress to register women as well as men. Congress refused and funded registration for men only — the decision the Supreme Court reviewed and upheld a year later.
Why This Keeps Coming Up in Congress
Two policy changes reopened the debate. In January 2013, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted the ban on women in direct ground combat. On December 3, 2015, Defense Secretary Ash Carter opened the last closed positions — about 220,000 jobs, including infantry, armor and special operations — to women. With no combat exclusion left, the reasoning behind a men-only draft lost its footing, and the issue landed on the annual defense bill.
In February 2016, the Army chief of staff and the Marine Corps commandant told the Senate Armed Services Committee they believed women should register. That year’s Senate bill included women; the final law dropped the provision and created a commission to study it instead.
The National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service spent two years on the question, holding hearings in 42 cities across 22 states. Its final report, released in March 2020, recommended that Congress end male-only registration and extend it to everyone in the eligible age group, arguing that roughly doubling the pool of potential draftees would improve readiness.
Congress has taken up the idea since then without passing it:
| Defense bill | What was proposed | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| FY2017 (2016) | Senate version required women to register | Dropped in the final law; commission created instead |
| FY2022 (2021) | Both chambers’ bills included women; Senate committee voted 21–5, House committee 35–24 | Dropped in December 2021 after conservative opposition |
| FY2025 (2024) | Senate committee bill added women and automatic registration | Both dropped in conference; law signed December 23, 2024 left registration unchanged |
| FY2026 (2025) | Automatic registration for men | Enacted as Section 535; women not included |
The 2021 attempt came closest. Seven Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee and four on the House committee voted to add women, and the commission’s report had called the change a “necessary and fair step.” A small group of conservatives, led in the Senate by Josh Hawley of Missouri, threatened to vote against the entire defense bill, and negotiators dropped the provision in December. In 2024, Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed defended the committee’s version by saying “women are doing a remarkable job in our forces today,” while Sen. Mike Lee of Utah summed up the opposing view in a single line: “We should not draft women.”
The pattern is consistent: committees with bipartisan majorities have approved adding women, and the provision has come out during final negotiations each time, usually after a group of senators and House members threatened to oppose the whole bill over it.
The Legal Landscape: Could Courts Force a Change?
The key precedent is Rostker v. Goldberg, decided June 25, 1981. By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court held that registering only men didn’t violate the Fifth Amendment. Writing for the majority, Justice William Rehnquist reasoned that because women were barred from combat, “men and women… are simply not similarly situated” for purposes of a draft. Justices White, Marshall and Brennan dissented.
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Once combat roles opened in 2015, that reasoning came under direct challenge. In National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System, Judge Gray Miller of the federal district court in Houston ruled on February 22, 2019 that the men-only requirement was unconstitutional, since men and women are now similarly situated for combat. The Fifth Circuit reversed on August 13, 2020, holding that only the Supreme Court could overrule Rostker.
In June 2021, the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Brett Kavanaugh, wrote a statement explaining why: the Court has long deferred to Congress on national defense, and it shouldn’t step in while “Congress actively weighs the issue.” The statement didn’t decide whether the male-only rule is constitutional; it said Congress was the place to settle it first.
Since then, Congress has rewritten registration through automatic enrollment but kept it male-only. Whether that prompts a new challenge, and how the Court would rule, is an open question.
Women in the Military Today
Women made up 17.9% of the active-duty force in 2024, according to the Defense Department’s annual demographics profile, and they serve in every branch and every career field. All of them volunteered; the U.S. has relied on an all-volunteer force since 1973.
Combat roles remain a live policy debate. In January 2026, the Pentagon launched a formal review of the effectiveness of opening combat jobs to women, and women serving in those jobs have pushed back on the review, saying the standards were never lowered for them. The outcome of that review affects how many women serve in combat jobs, but it doesn’t change draft law, which is set by Congress.
Women who want to serve can enlist or commission in any branch under the same age and eligibility rules as men — see our guide to military age limits by branch — and women veterans are eligible for the same VA benefits as men, from disability compensation to the GI Bill.
Arguments For and Against Including Women
This is a contested question, and people across the political spectrum land on different sides of it. These are the main arguments each side makes.
The Case for Including Women
- Equal obligation. If registration is a civic duty tied to citizenship, supporters say it should apply to everyone, especially now that women serve in every role.
- Readiness. The 2020 commission argued that doubling the pool of potential draftees would raise the overall quality of those who could be called, since some women would be better qualified than some men.
- Military support. Senior Army and Marine Corps leaders told Congress in 2016 that women should register, and Senate committees of both parties have voted for it repeatedly.
- Legal risk. Some supporters argue that acting now avoids a future court ruling that could strike down registration entirely.
The Case Against Including Women
- Combat realities. Opponents argue that a draft exists mainly to fill ground combat units in a major war, and that compelling women into those roles raises concerns that don’t apply to volunteers.
- Values and family. Some lawmakers and religious groups object on moral grounds to conscripting daughters and mothers, a view Sen. Josh Hawley and others pressed in the 2021 and 2024 fights.
- No practical need. Others say the debate is a distraction because the U.S. hasn’t drafted anyone in more than 50 years and has no plans to.
- End registration instead. A separate group, including libertarians and anti-war organizations, opposes expanding registration because it believes Selective Service should be abolished altogether.
What a Draft Would Actually Mean
Registration and a draft are different things. Registration keeps a list of men who could be called in a national emergency. The U.S. hasn’t inducted anyone since 1973, and the president can’t start a draft alone. Bringing it back would take:
- An act of Congress authorizing inductions, signed by the president
- A national lottery that pairs every birthday with a sequence number, run publicly with observers
- Induction notices mailed in sequence-number order, followed by medical, aptitude and moral screening, plus claims for exemptions, deferments and conscientious objector status
Men turning 20 in the draft year would be called first, then those turning 21, and so on through 25. Younger men wouldn’t be called until the 20-to-25 group had been reached. Our guide to how the draft lottery works walks through each step, and our draft disqualifications list covers the medical and other conditions that would keep someone from serving.
If Congress ever added women to registration, they would go through the same lottery and screening as men. That would take a new law; neither the automatic registration change nor any court ruling to date has done it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
No. Under the Military Selective Service Act, only men ages 18 through 25 must register with Selective Service, and only registered men could be drafted if Congress and the president ever reinstated a draft. Women aren’t required to register and can’t be drafted under current law.
No. Registration is still required only for men. The automatic registration law that takes effect in December 2026 covers male persons ages 18 through 25 living in the United States and does not include women.
No. Section 535 of the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act, signed December 18, 2025, tells Selective Service to automatically register men ages 18 through 25 using federal records. It doesn’t change who has to register, only who does the paperwork. Until the new system is running, men turning 18 should still register themselves at SSS.gov.
No. Requirements to register women were included in the Senate’s FY2017 defense bill, both chambers’ FY2022 bills and the Senate committee’s FY2025 bill, and each was removed before the final law passed. A 2020 national commission recommended the change, but Congress hasn’t enacted it.
No. Every U.S. draft has called men only. The closest the country came was in 1945, when the House passed a bill to draft nurses 347 to 42; the Senate never voted on it, and it died as the war in Europe ended.
The Supreme Court said yes in Rostker v. Goldberg in 1981, reasoning that men and women weren’t similarly situated because women were barred from combat. That bar ended in 2015. In 2021 the Court declined to hear a new challenge, with three justices writing that Congress was actively weighing the issue and should be given the chance to act first.
Men turning 20 in the year of the draft would be called first, in the order set by a national birthday lottery, followed by men turning 21, then 22, and so on through 25. Men 18 and 19 would be called only after that group. Anyone called would still go through medical and other screening and could claim exemptions or deferments.
Yes. Since December 2015, every military position, including infantry, armor and special operations, has been open to women who meet the standards. In January 2026 the Pentagon began reviewing how opening combat jobs to women has worked, but that review doesn’t change draft law.
This article is provided by USMilitary.org, an independent educational resource. We are not affiliated with the Department of Defense, VA, the Selective Service System or any government agency. For official registration information, visit SSS.gov.
