Conscription age range for women in UK if WW3 starts as fears escalate

When you think of wartime conscription, you potentially think of young men heading to the front lines to fight for our freedom – but in the unlikely (but possible) event that WW3 breaks out, women could be conscripted too.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been warned that the UK faces an “inevitable” Russian attack in revenge for the UK’s constanty and strengthening backing for Ukraine. Security chiefs were put on high alert on Tuesday for a potential Kremlin reaction, either targeting the Prime Minister himself or key military sites, after Mr Burnham’s high-profile visit to Kyiv and his decision to deepen military alignment with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Conscription – aka mandatory military service – was last used in the UK in 1960, but with mounting tensions worldwide, there has been talk of boosting Britain’s military numbers, especially if Russia were to not stop at Ukraine with its attempt to expand its borders.

In WW2, conscription began for men aged between 20 to 22 in 1939, up to six months before the war actually broke out.

But by the end of 1941, this was expanded to all women and “childless widows” aged up to 30 as well as men aged up to 51, so there is already precedent for women being called up to the frontline.

The UK Parliament website says: “During the spring of 1939 the deteriorating international situation forced the British government under Neville Chamberlain to consider preparations for a possible war against Nazi Germany.

“Plans for limited conscription applying to single men aged between 20 and 22 were given parliamentary approval in the Military Training Act in May 1939. This required men to undertake six months’ military training, and some 240,000 registered for service.

“In December 1941 Parliament passed a second National Service Act. It widened the scope of conscription still further by making all unmarried women and all childless widows between the ages of 20 and 30 liable to call-up.

“Men were now required to do some form of National Service up to the age of 60, which included military service for those under 51. The main reason was that there were not enough men volunteering for police and civilian defence work, or women for the auxiliary units of the Armed Forces.”

Recently, Grant Shapps, who was Defence Secretary at the time, said that we are “moving from a post-war to a pre-war world”, and General Sir Patrick Sanders, Britain’s most senior army officer, called for an increase in the size of the Army and said that the country needed to increase its preparedness for conflict.

Conscription was last in place in the UK in 1960, as the last soldiers who served in the national service scheme introduced for the Second World War and Cold War were discharged.

During the 2024 general election, then Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak pledged to introduce a system of national service for school leavers which would include military or civilian service. Labour branded the policy a “gimmick”.

Latvia, meanwhile, reinstituted its compulsory conscription policy in April 2023, after having abolished it in 2007. It is mandatory for men between 18 and 27, and lasts 11 months.

A YouGov survey carried out in 2025 found that 38% of under-40s said they would refuse to serve in the Armed Forces if a new world war broke out, and 30% would not serve even if the UK faced ‘imminent invasion’.

The same poll found that 72% supported women being conscripted as well as men.

In WW2, those who refused to fight were put on trial where conscientious objectors had to appear before a tribunal to argue their reasons for refusing to join-up.

If their cases were not dismissed, they were granted one of several categories of exemption, and were given non-combatant jobs.