Danish women who turn 18 from Wednesday will be entered into the country’s draft lottery system on an equal footing with their male compatriots for the first time. The change comes against a backdrop of Russia’s continued aggression in Ukraine and NATO’s members hiking their defence spending.

Col. Kenneth Strøm, head of the conscription program, told the Associated Press the decision, passed by Denmark’s parliament earlier in June, is based on “the current security situation.”

“They could take part in NATO collective deterrence,” he added. “Raising the number of conscripts, that would simply lead to more combat power.”

Denmark has only 9,000 professional troops out of its population of 9 million. The new rules are expected to bolster the numbers, with 6,500 people doing military service a year by 2033, up from 4,700 in 2024.

Under Danish law, all physically fit men over age 18 have to complete military service. Some people volunteer, while the rest of the places are allocated using a lottery system that until now has only involved men. In 2024, only around a quarter of the volunteers were women. “Some will probably be very disappointed being chosen to go into the military,” Anne Sofie, a current volunteer, said of the new female conscripts. “Some will probably be surprised and like it a lot more than they think they would.”

Denmark is planning to splurge significantly more on defence, with 3% of GDP expected to be deployed this year.

Unsurprisingly, experts point to the war in Ukraine as the driver behind the Danish government’s latest initiative to improve the country’s defences.

“We see a sharpened security situation in Europe. We have the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. We have focus on the Baltic countries, where Denmark is contributing a lot of soldiers. So, I think it’s a general effort to strengthen the Danish defence,” said researcher Rikke Haugegaard from the Royal Danish Defense College.