Army secretary: Women might soon have to register for the draft

Secretary of the Army John McHugh said Monday that he anticipates draft registration for both sexes will be approved by Congress in the relatively near future.

"If your objective is true and pure equality then you have to look at all aspects" of how women function in the military, McHugh said while speaking at a military convention in Washington, D.C. Draft registration for women would have to be approved by Congress, McHugh noted, predicting that the change is inevitable if "we find ourselves as a military writ large where men and women have equal opportunity, as I believe we should."

While McHugh is hardly the first to suggest expanding the draft, the public's opinion is less clear: One recent poll showed that 59 percent of Americans (including 61 percent of women) believed the draft should include both sexes, while a Quinnipiac poll just a few months earlier found only 45 percent of women would like to be draft eligible.

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