In pictures: No longer ‘the weak gender’ in Lithuania

VILNIUS — At the site of basic training for Lithuania's National Defense Volunteer Forces, a unit commander barks an odd order: “Soldiers with long hair to the front!” And with that, a third of the group changes position. Female faces are now front and center.

Against the backdrop of reinstated male conscription, militarization and an emigration crisis, women make up a increasingly large part of Lithuania's 5,000-strong, part-time territorial defense force.

Women of all ages have enlisted in the wake of the resurgence of Russian-backed separatism, and a tense regional standoff between NATO and Russia. They hope to serve their country, and in turn, they’re challenging deeply entrenched stereotypes about women's work in the post-Soviet country.

“In civilian life, maybe you have to be the ‘weak gender,’" says Greta Jastremskaitė. "But in the military, we’re the same.”

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