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...annoyed by the fact that there are only women here, not because am looking for my future husband or something like that. Too many women together are not a good thing anywhere, especially not in the military. (2)
Noa is one of numerous women who have managed to cross traditional gender lines in the Israeli military in the last decade, assigned to positions that typically had been reserved for men. (3) The inclusion of those women in traditional masculine spheres was the result of legal changes initiated by women and feminist groups in the 1990s. (4) Those changes were designed to promote greater gender equality in the military by opening prestigious combat units to women soldiers. (5) Hence, Noa and all other women whose military experiences were documented in the film Company Jasmine were all facilitators of this vision of gender equality. Moreover, those women are usually perceived as role models for what appears to be an on-going gender revolution in the military. (6)
Against this prevailing view of gender reform in the military, this article claims that despite the fact that women soldiers such as Noa manage to cross traditional military gender lines one should question more critically the feminist significance of this process of gender integration in the IDF. In fact, as discussed below, studies examining various aspects of this contemporary process of gender integration in the Israeli Army--including the subjective experience of women soldiers in non-traditional roles--suggest that Noa's misogynist reference to other women soldiers should not be dismissed as anecdotal. (7) Instead, those studies lead to the conclusion that this reference should be viewed as one manifestation of a larger phenomenon characterizing women's integration into masculine spheres. (8) In other words, women's androcentric attitudes toward other women, or toward practices associated with women and femininity, are not unusual among women soldiers serving in non-traditional roles. These women seem to distance themselves from traditional femininity by adopting the masculine perspective and the masculine norm. (9) Hence, while such women cross traditional gender boundaries in the military by assimilating into roles that had been reserved for men, they also preserve the clear hierarchical boundaries between femininity and masculinity that typically characterize masculinized institutions such as the military. Moreover, those boundaries appear to be perpetuated further by sexual harassment of women soldiers, which, according to official sources, continues to be widespread in the military, irrespective of women's growing integration in non-traditional roles. (10)
Nevertheless, while women's recent integration into traditionally masculine roles in the military does not seem to undermine the gendered structure of this institution, the subjective experience of those women regarding their military service appears to be quite empowering. For some women, having the equal opportunity to serve as their male counterparts proves to be a meaningful experience that raises their confidence and allows for individual achievements in areas traditionally inaccessible to women. (11)
This article focuses on these seemingly contradictory findings regarding women's growing integration in the military, using the Israeli experience of gender integration in the IDF as a case study for exploring the ongoing feminist debate on women's military service. At the heart of this debate lies the question whether women's equal integration in the military promotes or hinders gender equality. Traditionally this was a theoretical question, since no relevant empirical data existed as long as the general practice of all western militaries was women's exclusion from combat. Feminist discourse on this issue was therefore based mostly on general normative assumptions regarding the nature of the military on the one hand and the proper definition of gender equality on the other. Those embracing the liberal feminist approach--emphasizing gender sameness and equal treatment--have argued that women's equal participation in the military is an important manifestation of equal rights, and therefore promotes the vision of gender equality and equal citizenship for men and women. (12) Those analyzing the military as an inherently masculine institution have concluded that women's military service only perpetuates masculine concepts of citizenship. (13)
This article seeks to add to this discussion by providing a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which women's growing integration in traditionally masculine spheres in the military impacts gender equality. It argues that, more than a decade after the IDF has formally started to implement programs for gender integration in combat roles, it is time to start evaluating the significance and various consequences of this process. The potential evaluation is no longer theoretical but can be based on actual data that already exists. This data consists of not only sheer statistics regarding women's continuing integration into non-traditional roles in the military, but it also includes documentation of the subjective viewpoints of the women soldiers who are part of this newly established integrationist reality. Hence, in an effort to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the actual nature and implications of women's current integration in combat roles in the military, this article presents and analyzes a complex body of information, including female soldiers' own subjective experience of this process.
Part I of this article sketches the history of women's military service in Israel, highlighting the fact that, despite an officially equal mandatory draft for both men and women, the Israeli military was segregated along gender lines for many years. This segregation was represented by men serving in combat roles and women serving in the less-prestigious administrative and auxiliary roles. Part II explores the various consequences of this regime of gender segregation and the relationship between military service and equal citizenship in Israel. Part III analyzes the legal and structural changes that started to take place in the 1990s as part of an organized feminist struggle to promote greater gender integration within the military. This part further explains that such changes opened up new opportunities for women to serve in the combat roles traditionally reserved for men. Part IV examines and assesses the implications that this proclaimed gender revolution and integration has had on women's equality and status--both within the military and in society at large. Based on various studies, including the military's own research and findings, I argue that, despite formal integrationist policies, informal cultural and ideological barriers continue to hinder women's integration, while creating new forms of gender segregation in the military. The article concludes that the Israeli feminist struggle for gender integration in the military provides an intriguing case study that highlights the complexities and enormous difficulties inherent in women's quest for equality. While the military's critical role in determining status and equal citizenship in society seems to require women to be part of this key important social institute, it is questionable whether the integrationist strategy will ever enable them to win the battle for gender equality from within.
I. ISRAELI WOMEN AND THE DRAFT: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Israel is unique (certainly in comparison to the U.S.) in its mandatory draft of all citizens--men and women alike. This means that women have been part of the Israeli Defense Forces since the early days of Israeli statehood. As far back as 1949 (one year after the establishment of the State of Israel), the original version of the Defense Service Law mandated military service for both men and women, while differentiating between the sexes in the terms and conditions of service. (14) The original decision to draft women together with men in the early days of statehood is usually attributed to two main factors. First, sexual equality was a key component of the State's founding ethos. (15) A formal commitment to the idea of gender equality can be found in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, which provides that the State of Israel "will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its citizens irrespective of religion, race, or sex." (16) Moreover, as Nitza Berkowitch explains, this reference to sexual equality should be perceived as more than a mere commitment to the idea of equality. (17) Rather, it was "a self conscious portrayal of Israel as an example of a new model society founded on principles of justice and equality." (18) Accordingly, when the question of drafting women was raised before the legislature immediately after the establishment of the State, the issue was clearly framed by its proponents in egalitarian terms. (19)
A second relevant factor for the decision to enlist women was Israel's ongoing security concerns. (20) Following the 1948 War of Independence, Israeli leaders came to the conclusion that the Arab countries would not accept the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East; it was therefore essential to prepare the population for a long period of fighting and sacrifice for the country's defense. (21) The vision of a "people's army" (22) was integral to this purpose. A draft of men and women alike had both practical and symbolic significance: It was an important expression of the idea that the military and the security needs of the country belonged to "all." (23)
The Defense Service Law, presented to the Israeli parliament (the Knesset) in 1949, was the first attempt to legally formalize women's military service. (24) The legal framework ultimately adopted by the legislature was based on two general principles: (1) some women--namely Jewish, single females--would be drafted; and (2) women would not fight in combat. Thus, the state created a model of "semi-inclusion" (25) that reflected an ambivalent concept of participation on the one hand and of marginality on the other hand. While women were allowed to participate, they were considered an auxiliary force of relatively marginal importance. In contrast, men were assigned to fill the military's primary roles of fighters and defenders. (26) Consequently, the law created different provisions for men and women in three main areas relating to their compulsory service: (1) duration of regular service; (2) scope of annual reserve duty; and (3) exemption from service: Women's compulsory service would be shorter than men's, (27) a lower age limit was set for women's annual reserve duty, (28) and an exemption from service was granted to many groups of women. (29) In addition, women's potential roles in the military were determined by the Minister of Defense in regulations enacted in 1952. (30) These regulations, designed to implement the decision to exclude women from the battlefield, explicitly listed the positions that women could fill within the armed services. Out of the specified twenty-five possible positions for women, none involved combat-related tasks. (31)
Thus, contrary to its common image as an army that had broken the classic combat/non-combat division of labor between the...
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