Fall 2008
Gender Roles in the Israeli Military
The issue of gender discrimination has been a topic of much discussion and concern in today’s society all around the world. Nowhere exemplifies that more than in the militaries of the world. While many of the militaries today do not draft or have mandatory military service for their women, it does not mean that in a society that does have this that genders are treated equally in terms of tasks performed or the powers they can exercise (Yuval-Davis 1985, 649 - 650). The truth is that volunteer militaries are more likely to treat a woman like a soldier than a “women”. In Israel’s mandatory military this can be studied. I will show how the genders are indeed treated differently in the military and how the feminine sex has many struggles that men do not have.
When a nation-state has armed conflict over long periods of time, as Israel has been since its creation, the military as an institution becomes essential to the existence of that state (Golan 1997, 581). Since Israel has had such a prolonged conflict the connection between service in the military and complete citizenship are interdependent (Sasson-Levy 2003, 322). For example, roles that male ex-soldiers, ex-combat soldiers, or officers have in civilian life are more luxurious than those that did not serve (Golan 1997, 583). This “gendered nature of citizenship” is one of the primary reasons that women’s military service has been so controversial (Sasson-Levy 2001, 7).
The Israeli army claims that it has egalitarian principles and that it tries not to discriminate by ethnicity, class, or background (Sasson-Levy 2003, 324). This, however, is not true in practice. In practice, the army discriminates by gender, race, class, ethnicity, nationality, and sexuality (Sasson-Levy 2003, 320). Often these issues of discrimination are considered secondary to the issues of security and peace and thus get pushed to the wayside (Golan 1997, 583). While each of these discriminations is unwarranted and deserved to be examined in depth, the one that is going to be explored here is the issue of gender discrimination. To understand all of the unique implications and angles associated with gender inequality in Israel we first need to look at the history of women in the Israeli military (Golan 1997, 581).
The role of women in the Israeli military has been debated even prior to the conception of Israel as a state (Johnson 1989, 10). The current Israel Defense Force (IDF) is traceable to the early 20th century beginning with Bar-Giora, established in 1907 (Johnson 1989, 10). Bar-Giora was a fighting unit that exemplified Bedouin as its warrior (5). Out of the twelve members of Bar-Giora there were only two women in the unit (Johnson 1989, 10). Two years after Bar-Giora’s establishment, Bar-Giora turned into Hashomer (Johnson 1989, 10). Out of Hashomer came the two basic roles for women (Johnson 1989, 11). The first being the full-fledged participant and the other being the mere wives of the members of Hashomer (Johnson 1989, 11). Eventually, Hashomer could no longer defend the land that Israel would later occupy (Johnson 1989, 11). Thus, Haganah was formed and it included all able bodied Jews (male and female) to serve in varying position (Johnson 1989, 11). From Haganah, Zahal (IDF) was created on May 26, 1948 (Yuval-Davis 1985, 659 and Johnson 1989, 11).
Women helped pre-state Israel when the Roman’s attacked Jerusalem (Yuval-Davis 1985, 649). Then, during World War II, women drove from Cairo to Jerusalem in armored tanks and doing so was not uncommon (Johnson 1989, 12). As one can see, in pre-state Israel women had an active role even though the military had been considered a predominantly male domain (Johnson 1989, 12 and 8, 649). The point in which women’s roles began to change in the military was in 1948 during the War for Independence (Johnson 1989, 12). The Israeli War for Independence began with one-fifth of its active soldiers as women in combat positions; however, by the end of the war the positions that the women were assigned were less combat oriented and more secretarial (Johnson 1989, 12).
Since “Israel is the size of New Jersey” (T. Pearlman, personal interview, November 6, 2008) one must realize that “When you are in battle you are very close to your house, not to mention the widest you go, unless you are taking the territories, is 15 kilometers, 10 miles. It is so short you always feel like you are defending your home…it’s natural” (E. Munichor, personal interview, November 6, 2008). This is the way that Mr. Munichor described being in an officer in the army. The facets of the military he was a part of and the facets of the military that Ms. Pearlman and Ms. Wald were a part of differed greatly even though there are similarities in the things that happen today between the sexes.
Today, there is mandatory conscription for both males and females in one of the three main branches – the land (army), sea (navy), or air (air force) (Sasson-Levy 2003, 324 and Yuval-Davis 1985, 659). Military service is seen as a citizen’s minimal duty in exchange for citizenship and civic, political, and social rights (Sasson-Levy 2003, 321). “Its kinda weird when you’re growing up when you know that you’re gonna have to go to the military. You know it from when you’re born… since you’re a child you know that one day you’re going to be walking around in uniform with an M-16 or an oozy or whatever it is they give you” (T. Pearlman, personal interview, November 6, 2008). This is the attitude that all young men and women are brought up with because the fact is that when Jewish Israeli citizens reach the age of eighteen they are drafted for two or three years depending on gender (Dar and Kimhi 2004, 433).
One of the problems with this is that relating citizenship to military service like this creates a differential and stratified citizenship for men and women for reasons which will be explored (Sasson-Levy 2003, 322). Women traditionally serve two years in the forces while men serve three (Dar and Kimhi 2004, 434). It was not always like that and women’s service regulations were cut back in 1993 and 1994, to where it is today, at the two year mark (Klein 2002, 671). Given that military service is mandatory for all able bodied Jewish citizens of age (and non-Jewish volunteers) the vast majority of the Israeli population pass through this institution and as the way that the genders are treated and the messages that the Israeli military is really sending to its soldiers should be carefully examined.
Differences in the way that the genders are treated by the military begin prior to inscription into the military. The letters that are sent out to the seventeen year old boys and girls are different and it is much easier for a girl to receive an exemption from military service than it is for a young boy (Golan 1997, 581 – 582). In fact, only 60% of Jewish women are eventually drafted, but about 90% of Jewish men are drafted (Klein 2002, 671). The various branches court the boys from the local high schools by making it a competition but there is nothing like that happening for girls (Golan 1997, 581). Regardless of this, only about 15% of women complete their statutory two years of service while 80% of men complete their three years (Klein 2002, 671). The truth of the matter is that at any given time the women in the Israeli military make up only 5-7% of the active or reserve forces (Yuval-Davis 1985, 650)
The entire IDF consists of both the regular armed forces (professional and the recruits) and the reserve army (Yuval-Davis 1985, 659). In both of these areas of the armed forces there is ethnic and class stratification that mirrors that of the civilian society around the military (Sasson-Levy 2003, 324). The military, in all reality, reinforces the stereotypical role of the man as the warrior fighter and the women as subordinate, sub servant, and all together antithetical to the military role (Golan 1997, 581, Dar and Kimhi 2004, 435, and Klein 2002, 671). Part of the reason that this is the case is because the Israeli society indirectly leans on these stereotypes (Dar and Kimhi 2004, 435). Ms. Dara Wald agrees that women’s roles in the Israeli military are based on stereotypes after her voluntary service, “The gender roles that are there are because of stereotypes as opposed to rules that are written down. On the flip side, women are the ones that are generally considered the best at training men…those typical gender roles are broken from time to time too” (personal interview, November 6, 2008).
For the reserve military there is a time requirement difference between the genders as well. Men are kept on reserve service for 20 to 25 years until they are 55 years of age, regardless of marital status (Dar and Kimhi 2004, 434). The way that they do this is that they complete about thirty days of reserve duty, sixty in times of emergency, a year until they hit their magic age of 55 (Johnson 1989, 13). Women, however, are only able to be called up for reserve duty until the age of 34 and only if they are single but the vast majority of women are exempted from reserve duty by the age of 25 or not called into reserve duty at all (Dar and Kimhi 2004, 434, Johnson 1989, 13, and Klein 2002, 672). These differences create differences in civil society that these young adults are subject to such as advantages that young men have that young women do not (Golan 1997, 583). Such advantages could be something as simple as having families plan their holidays and events around their son’s military service and departure and do not around their daughters (Herzog 2004, 15).
The military has a group called Chen, women corps, in which all women in the military belong too (Yuval-Davis 1985, 660). In Hebrew “chen” means charm and this is one of the reasons that the women corps was named that, they emphasize charm for women in the military (Yuval-Davis 1985, 660). This group is considered a goal oriented group in the military and many of the women are still considered only partial members of the military and full members of Chen (Yuval-Davis 1985, 660).
The Israeli military has a system in which one’s status is related to how close they are to combat (Golan 1997, 582). Combat soldiers always have the highest prestige and the combat units always receive first priority in all aspects of military life (Herzog 2004, 677). The glorification and relation to the combat soldier is so prominent in the Israeli society that it is nearly impossible to construct a military identity (male or female) that does not relate to it (Sasson-Levy 2003, 327). The problem with this is that women are almost entirely excluded from the combat position (Dar and Kimhi 2004, 434 and Golan 1997, 582). Some people oppose women in combat positions because they, as civil society in Israel in general, have a very strong sense of family ties and traditional family values (Johnson 1989, 13). The entire Israeli society, in general, possesses a protective aura for their women and feels that putting women in these roles would be throwing them in danger (Johnson 1989, 13).
The exception to this is that some women are in combat support positions and in some combat specialties, like antiaircraft corps that have recently been opened up for women to be included (Dar and Kimhi 2004, 434). In addition, many of them are allowed into jobs that require further than basic training only if they agree to stay in the military for an extra year than what is required (Yuval-Davis 1985, 664). The number of women occupying these newly available roles is very low percentage wise compared to those women who occupy classic female roles of civilian labor aka office work (Yuval-Davis 1985, 644 and 662). At one point the government committee on the position of women in Israel suggested that all jobs be open to women save the combat positions at the frontline (Yuval-Davis 1985, 665).
Basic training for men and women is different as well (Golan 1997, 582). Women have three weeks, give or take, of basic training but men have a basic training that lasts three months (Herzog 2004, 23). Not only does a man’s basic training last much longer but it is also much more physically intensive (Golan 1997, 582). Then women and men must go on to other different “basic” training for their specific jobs.
Now that these roles have been opened up to include women the military is concerned for the physical well being of their women soldiers in masculine roles (Gam, Goldstein, Karmon, Mintser, Grotto, Guri, Goldberg, Ohana, Onn, Levi, and Bar-Dayan 2005, 710). The military funded a research project to find out about the high risk of fractures during the basic training for these combat roles and eventually recommended that separate training be done for women that had a “lower level of target strain” (Gam, Goldstein, Karmon, Mintser, Grotto, Guri, Goldberg, Ohana, Onn, Levi, and Bar-Dayan 2005, 710 and 712). This recommendation came about because they found that man had a 2-3% chance of fracture while women had 10-14% chance of fracture during the antiaircraft basic training (Gam, Goldstein, Karmon, Mintser, Grotto, Guri, Goldberg, Ohana, Onn, Levi, and Bar-Dayan 2005, 710). The numbers when evaluate show that there are a significantly smaller amount of women in this type of training than men though. Thirty-three women were found with fractures while forty-two men were found with fractures; however, the percentages were 23.91% and 11.2%, respectively (Gam, Goldstein, Karmon, Mintser, Grotto, Guri, Goldberg, Ohana, Onn, Levi, and Bar-Dayan 2005, 711). This shows that while they are concerned with the safety of these soldiers they are still not bringing the same amount of women as men into the program. Then one can be lead to believe that part of the deciding factor in military placement is nearly always gender dependent (Yuval-Davis 1985, 650).
Ms. Dara Wald experienced some of these gender differences and gender roles first hand. “I was in a role that was typically men. There were 5 women in my class and the rest, of a class of 50 or 60, were men…I remember my first day when I finally got to my base after training…I walked in, I was so excited, into the garage. And this commander that didn’t know me asked what I was doing there because I was the only women in the unit. And I said, “I’m here, I’m a mechanic.” And he was like, “No you’re not.” And I was like, “Yeah, I am.” He was like, “Great, great, can you get me some coffee?” I wish I could say that was the only time where something like that happened like that in my career but it wasn’t” (D. Wald, personal interview, November 6, 2008). This situation exemplifies that there were not many women in her typically male job (Army tank mechanic) and that there are gender stereotypes that are dominant in the military.
In addition to these stereotypes, there are more concrete things associated with gender discrimination in the Israeli military as well. One of the major things is the pay that women and men, specifically married men and married women, receive (Golan 1997, 582). Women receive only twenty cents to every dollar that a man makes (Golan 1997, 583). Shimon Peres, the former defense minister, in 1975, went on the record saying, “Of course there is a distinction between married men and the married women soldier. The reason for this is the man is the head of the household and the main provider” (Johnson 1989, 14).
Men in the military have, as you can see, a long and dominating history that today symbolizes for many Israeli men normality, respectability, and the sense of being “Israeli” (Sasson-Levy 2003, 323 and 328). A man’s ultimate commitment would be to give his life on the battlefield like a good warrior or citizen and since a woman is prevented from being allowed to give this ultimate sacrifice, then, they are not seen as equals in civil society and thus advantages are given to men that served in the military once they leave active service (Sasson-Levy, 322). Some would even go as far as calling the three years of military service for men their right of passage into Israeli adulthood (Klein 2002, 671).
Some men do not serve in the military, however (Sasson-Levy 2003, 322). These men often face some of the same civil oppressions and obstacles that women face in civil society after military service (Sasso-Levy 2003, 322). Even among men that served in the military there is stratification of the civil societal benefits based on the status in their military service (Sasson-Levy 2003, 322). Such men are those in blue-collar positions that emphasize responsibility and contribution but they are more responsible to their family or women at home rather than to the nation-state per say thus they are not considered as masculine (Sasson-Levy 2003, 327 and 329). Often these young men entering the military from lower economic or physical fitness, as the military for men is generally a more body intensive experience, know that they will come out of the military unrewarded and older (Klein 2002, 673 and Sasson-Levy 2003, 331). Part of the reason that this happens is because there are certain skills and qualities, like expertise in security or leadership, that are associated with having a military career are seen as superior to that of the lesser militarized man in a state at war (Golan 1997, 583). For this reason, the majority of the political actors in the Knesset (Israeli legislation) are ex-generals and ex-officers (Golan 1997, 483).
There are some women that do serve in the military and then do go on to become Knesset members. However, the roles that men and women have are vary. For example, a man is highly regarded if they are in a reconnaissance unit and a woman is highly regarded if they have had pre-enlistment courses (Dar and Kimhi 2004, 439). Other comparable positions are a man’s noncombatant role and a women’s office work, a man working in the artillery, engineering, armor, or aircraft cores and a women in a vocational role (nurse), and finally a man in the infantry and a women instructor or commander (Dar and Kimhi 2004, 439). Even with these women’s roles, it is obvious that the closer the role is to combat the more highly regarded the woman is and thus higher their status in and out of the military (Golan 1997, 582). These huge differences in jobs and significances just show how wide the gender gap is in practice.
The army has taken steps to rectify some of these gender role inequalities though. In 1977, there were only 200 jobs out of 775 available for a woman to do, none of which were combat oriented (Johnson 1989, 14). By 1980 there had been some gains and the military offered 270 jobs (Yuval-Davis 1985, 661). Then there was significant gains by 1986, there were 500 jobs available for a woman to do (Johnson 1989, 14). In the year 2000, the Knesset abolished the combat restriction for women so that they may have the opportunity to have combat related jobs (Klein 2002, 676). Even though these jobs were opened up to women in 2000 the percentage of women that serve in combat positions is still very small, 5% in 2000 (Dar and Kimhi 2004, 434). This percentage has slowly been growing though since the year 2000.
This major breakthrough was through achieved compliments of Allice Miller and her case in late 1995, early 1996 (Golan 1997, 582). This was a Supreme Court case that decided that “the air force must make appropriate arrangements to permit women to become candidates and if qualified, enter the pilot training course” (Golan 1997, 582). Ms. Miller had a civil aviation pilot’s license and a degree in aeronautics; however, the air force had repeatedly reused to give her permission to take the qualifying exams and courses to become a pilot for them (Golan 1997, 582). Another thing that happened was that the Border-Guards were opened up to women in 1996 which is a combat-like position (Golan 1997, 582).
While these things are significant and show a greater acceptance of genders into the military there is still the internalized patriarchal order that has been internalized for the military that has been carried over into the state (Sasson-Levy 2001, 7). The work that Israeli military has done to provide closure between the gender gap in the military has been significant during the last few decades. The problem lies in how interconnected the military and civil society is. Since women are very slowly attaining positions of significant the public sector has responded just as slowly. In the next century, this researcher believes, that these gender differences will eradicated and that civil society will value the daughter just as much as the son. Women on the military front will be back to where they were 2000 years ago, on the frontlines helping and protecting their home.
Work Cited
Dar, Yechezel and Shaul Kimhi. 2004. “Youth in the Military: Gendered Experiences in the Conscript Service in the Israeli Army.” Armed Forces & Society, 30(3): 433-459.
Gam, Arnon, Liav Goldstein, Yuval Karmon, Igor Mintser, Itamar Grotto, Alex Guri, Avishay Goldberg, Nissim Ohana, Erez Onn, Yehezkel Levi, and Yaron Bar-Dayan. 2005. “Comparison of Stress Fractures of Male and Female Recruits during Basic Training in the Israeli Anti-Aircraft Forces.” Military Medicine, 170(8): 710-712.
Golan, Galia. 1997. “Militarization and gender: the Israeli experience.” Women’s Studies International Forum, 20: 581-586.
Herzog, Hanna. 2004. “Family-Military Relations in Israel as a Genderizing Social Mechanism.” Armed Forces & Society, 31(1): 5-30.
Johnson, Barbara E. 1989. “Military roles of Israeli women.” Minerva, 7: 10-18.
Klein, Uta. 2002. “The Gender Perspective of Civil-Military Relations in Israeli Society.” Current Sociology, 50(5): 669-686.
Munichor, Ehud. Personal Interview. 6 November 2008.
Pearlman, Tamara. Personal Interview. 6 November 2008.
Sasson-Levy, Orna. 2003. “Military, Masculinity, and Citizenship: Tensions and
Contradictions in the Experience of Blue-Collar Soldiers.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 10: 319-345.
Sasson-Levy, Orna. 2001. “Gender performance in a changing military: women soldiers in "masculine" roles.” Israel Studies Forum, 17: 7-22.
Wald, Dara. Personal Interview. 6 November 2008.
Yuval-Davis, Nira. 1985. “Front and rear: the sexual division of labor in the Israeli army.”
Feminist Studies, 11(3): 649-675.
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