They can also enrol for national service on a voluntary basis, an opportunity that allows them to gain insight into the armed forces and might encourage them to pursue a military career. In both countries, female soldiers train, work and are deployed on equal terms with men. No Danish woman has yet served as a fighter pilot, either. Danish and Norwegian servicewomen serve or have served in almost all operational functions in the armed forces, except for the para-rangers and marine commandos, since to date no woman has met entry requirements. Denmark opened all functions and units in the armed forces to women in 1988 after trials conducted in combat arms in 19. Norway was the first NATO country to allow women to serve on submarines and women have been allowed into all other combat functions since 1985. Norway and Denmark are in some respects the most progressive countries, where female soldiers are concerned. A brief look at some Allies with longer histories of servicewomen, often dating back to the Second if not the First World War, illustrates the point. Since the integration of women takes place at different levels and in different ways, it is difficult to draw up a precise league table among NATO countries. Although women have served in armed forces for many years, the debate about the feminisation of the military continues, even in countries that are farther down the road of integration than others: about how and where women should serve and train, about the extent to which women should be integrated, and even about whether the process has already gone too far. But each military has its own history, traditions and culture and the degree of integration of women varies from one to another. According to statistics from the Office on Women in the NATO Forces, the number of females in NATO uniforms, all volunteers, has jumped from 30,000 in 1961 to 288,000 today. In the course of the past four decades, the status, conditions and armed forces have changed almost beyond recognition. It is the 40th anniversary of the first NATO Conference of Senior Service Women Officers and the 25th anniversary of the formal recognition of the Committee on Women in the NATO Forces by the Military Committee, NATO's highest military authority. Women in NATO forces have much to celebrate this year.

Women's civil war uniform navy