Putin urged soldiers’ mothers to be “proud of them”, claiming that no conscripts would be sent to the frontline.

Interesting. I was just an hour ago reading a letter from a Russian, in of all places Bristish Archaeology magazine, in which he says that conscripts are being sent to Ukraine. Is it possible that Mr Putin is not being completely truthful here?

These feminists are indeed performing a valuable service as mothers. Men cannot oppose conscription without being punished severely by the state, after all, for desertion or cowardice.
But this essay should do more more than praise mothers; it was an opportunity missed. The author could have performed an equally valuable service by acknowledging, as a woman or even a feminist, that women have not been the only people to experience oppression. Conscripts, almost always male, are routinely dehumanized, turned into weapons, used and then discarded as expendable resources. If women have a right to “choose” what they do with their own bodies, moreover, why not men?
Also, what about the Ukrainian women who, as refugees in neighboring countries, have abandoned their men? Could they not have found ways to fight for their country? Women have done so in the past, why not now? Consider the women of Britain, including the queen, who stayed in London (often with their children) during the blitz. They kept calm and carried on for eight months of chaos and destruction. Apart from any practical tasks that they performed–and there were many–they sent a powerful message to the nation of solidarity that transcended any divisions by sex, race, class or religion.