Are you ready to sign up for war? Most people aren’t, but in the United States once, boys turn 18 years old, they’re required to sign up for the draft. What about the girls?

The draft, more historically known as conscription, has been used in the U.S. since 1917 to force young men years 19-26 into military service whenever the government sees fit. It’s been put

to use on five different occasions, and resulted in 16.5 million soldiers being put into service.

For decades now, the only people who were required to enlist in the draft were men soon after their 18th birthday, but that may soon change. Last month, a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional for women to be left out of the draft . This has caused an increase of pressure on Congress to expand the

draft to include women or outlaw it completely.

While this is a controversial decision, many countries include women. Including Israel, Sweden, Bolivia and many more. In Norway, not only are women included in their draft, but they were also the first country to allow women in the military where they originally served on their submarines in 1985.

When it was instated, the draft left women out because they were not allowed to fill combat roles but served as nurses. On February 2013, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta lifted the military’s ban on women serving in combat. As it stands now, women are able to fight and even have around 378,000 members in uniform and about one out of every six service members are female.

While there hasn’t been any solid plans to move forward, debates have emerged across the country about equality, and equal opportunities for women.