Women could soon have to register for the draft — if the US military is serious about achieving “true and pure equality,” according to a top military official.

“If your objective is true and pure equality then you have to look at all aspects [of the roles of women in the military],” declared Army Secretary John McHugh.

McHugh, speaking at an Army conference this week in Washington, DC, said draft registration — while just one element of US military operations — “will be one of those things that will have to be considered.”

“If we find ourselves as a military at large where men and women have equal opportunity, as I happen to believe they should, serving in combat positions at least on a formal basis … then ultimately the question of extending the selective service requirements to women as well will have to at least be discussed,” McHugh said.

There are now 17 million men who are registered and eligible for conscription. There’s been no draft since 1973, but all men between 18 to 25 still must register for a potential draft.

Norway, in 2014, became the first NATO nation to require women to register for military service.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter is expected to made decisions by Jan. 1 on the role of women in combat, but it will be up to Congress to ultimately decide on draft registration, McHugh said.

A majority of Americans appear ready for women to take on a greater military role.

A 2013 Quinnipiac University poll showed Americans strongly oppose the draft, 65 percent to 28 percent. But if there had to be conscription, both genders were for equal draft registration mandates — although less so for female respondents.

Men said women should be drafted by a 59-36 margin while women were OK with females in the draft at a 48-45 clip.

“I think it should be the same for everybody even though I wouldn’t necessarily be nuts about it,” UCLA student Grace Apostolopoulos told KPCC, a Los Angeles radio station, earlier this year.

“I think that’s the fairest thing.”

Former Army officer and Iraq vet Shelly Burgoyne called the draft “a social contract with democracy.”

“If you’re going to take advantage of all of the benefits of a democracy, then I think you should also bear the responsibility as well,” she told the Christian Science Monitor.