I am glad that Mr. Pfister is against this. After all we should aim to make it voluntary for everyone and not an obligation for men only. It’s already hard to return to work after pregnancy, so this could result in even more problems.
https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/service-citoyen-initiative-bundesrat-sagt-nein-zum-buergerdienst-fuer-alle
Posted by celebral_x
3 Comments
The reasoning with “women do more care work” is ridiculous. It is a voluntary decision. The same with “women bear children which is also huge benefit to society and thus they should be exempt from military service”. What about all the women who don’t do care work or don’t have children? Or what about a man who has to be mother and father to his kids or care for sick relatives? Why is one exempt from the military and civil service and the other one isn’t for the same reason? This service cityoen initiative seems to be the best way to adress this injustice. Martin Pfister is completely wrong
I for one fully support this initiative. While I do understand that women still face discrimination in many aspects of life in practice (majority of unpaid care work, unexplainable wage gap, glass ceilings etc.), you do have to start somewhere to achieve true equality between men and women. As long as military service is only mandatory for one gender, opponents of equality will always have a very strong argument they can point to.
It’s insane how they can argue with “Forced labour” laws against this, while at the same time defending conscription for men.