What is the reality for the integration of women in the Israeli army?
11.12.2020
Emma Montron
In both Israeli and foreign media, the Israeli army is portrayed as a progressive entity in which women have long had their place. Two years after the establishment of the Hebrew state in 1947, the Defense Service Law of 1949 made military service mandatory for women. Since then, the number of women in the service has grown steadily, from 435 in 2005 to 2,656 in 2017[1]Rouach Déborah, « L’instrumentalisation du genre dans le conflit israélo-palestinien (2000-2020) », under the supervision of Marie Cécile Naves, Iris Sup’, 2020.. However, the Western view of women’s place in the IDF is relatively far from what is analyzed as “exclusionary inclusion[2]Term used by the Chief of Staff’s advisor on women’s issues: Sasson-Levy Orna, Lomsky-Feder Edna, « Genre et violence dans les paroles de soldates : le cas … Continue reading”. Studying the Israeli military institution through the gender lens, where the concept of gender is conceptualised as “a primary way of signifying power relations[3]Definition by Joan W. Scott : Scott Joan, Varikas Éléni. Genre : Une catégorie utile d’analyse historique. In: Les Cahiers du GRIF, n°37-38, 1988. Le genre de l’histoire. pp. 125-153.” may shed some light on the reality, issues and consequences of this integration.
The army, a breeding ground for the entrenchment of a male-female dichotomy
The body of the Israeli Defence Army or IDF, includes the infantry, the air force and the navy. It was created in May 1948 following the creation of the Hebrew state. The persistence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict favours the centrality of an institution like the army. Although the duration[4]2 years and 8 months for men versus 2 years for women. of military service differs by gender, it is as much a norm for women as it is for men. Women can be exempted from service in case of marriage, pregnancy or religious convictions. Military service is seen as a passage to adulthood in the Israeli society, a kind of “institutional rite which sanctions and consecrates gender differences.[5]Simonetti Ilaria, « Le service militaire et la condition des femmes en Israël », Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 2006, published online on 6th of March 2012.”
Indeed, women and men do not experience their military service in the same way, nor do they derive the same benefits from it. One might have thought that the compulsory conscription of women would help to change a traditional perception of gender role assignment. However, as an “extremely gendered[6]Sasson-Levy Orna, Lomsky-Feder Edna, « Genre et violence dans les paroles de soldates : le cas d’Israël », Critique internationale, 2013/3 (N° 60), p. 71-88. Researcher at … Continue reading” , organization, the military accentuates the existing dichotomy between women and men and conveys it.
Ilaria Simonetti[7]Researcher at the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale (LAS) of the EHESS reminds us that one of the missions of the IDF, apart from defending its territory, is “to ensure an educational and socializing role for young recruits. The Israeli army plays a central role in cultural homogenization, educational development, ethnic integration, learning Hebrew and the values of the nation.[8]Simonetti Ilaria, « Le service militaire et la condition des femmes en Israël », Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 2006, available online on 06 March 2012.” She explains that although Israelis themselves see military service as a strengthening experience, the army literally presents it as a rite of passage, a rite of citizenship. The centrality of this institution further reinforces this idea in the eyes of individuals. The young people who perform this military service are generally between 18 and 21 years old[9]Sasson-Levy Orna, Lomsky-Feder Edna, « Genre et violence dans les paroles de soldates : le cas d’Israël », Critique internationale, 2013/3 (N° 60), pp. 71-88., which heightens the initiatory and pedagogical dimension. This is when secondary socialization takes place. It is the moment when spheres outside one’s family influence and participate in the construction of perceptions and representations. The mind is more inclined to integrate and appropriate what the institution will value.
Military service is also presented as a vehicle for integration because “it is also a melting pot that allows immigrants and minority groups to join in the same rite of passage.[10]Abramson Larry, « Women In Combat: Some Lessons From Israel’s Military », NPR, 19 May 2013.” More broadly, it is an opportunity to integrate a nation through an experience that is highly valued by the Israelis themselves, for all those who wish to do so without having to do so. This is what motivates some young women who arrive on Hebrew soil after their majority. The three months of intensive Hebrew language training allow them to go into the field with enough basic knowledge to get by. What emerges from this experience is the idea that the members of these units see each other more as “brothers and sisters in arms” than as individuals of the opposite sex. It should be kept in mind, however, that the experience of military service for a native Israeli is different from that of a non-native. Young, non-Israeli women who enlist for three years alongside male recruits represent only 5% of the army[11]Ibid.. What about the rest of the Israeli female soldiers?
The gendered division of labour within the military
The differentiation of duties between women and men in the same field or within the same institution is a visible feature, particularly within the Israeli army. The dichotomy observed between the duties entrusted to women and those entrusted to men corresponds to another dichotomy: that between administrative tasks and direct actions in the field. Most women are not in combat positions: “While 92% of the IDF’s posts are open to women, only 3% of them are in such positions”. In reality, if we look at secretaries, a field that is mostly populated by women, we can see that it is also gendered in the army. Until the middle of the 1990s, there was a strict division of labour: “at least 40% of women were affected to desk and support jobs”.
Researchers Orna Sasson-Levy and Edna Lomsky-Feder stated in an article that “71% of secretarial positions were still held by women in 2009[12]Ibid.”, while adding that they were “absent from the real core; infantry, tanks, reconnaissance units.[13]Ibid.” A phrase that seems to characterize this situation well is “outsider from within”[14]Ibid.. It was not enough to join the army to benefit from the same duties, let alone the same rights. Compulsory conscription allowed women to join the institution, but they were still marginalized. They were relegated to jobs that are traditionally perceived, even externally, as feminine. The fact of embodying masculinity at its finest exacerbates the gendered differentiation that already exists within society and that is also found in the army. It is not “the only institution that forces the socialization of gender roles.[15]Simonetti Ilaria, « Le service militaire et la condition des femmes en Israël », Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 2006, available online since 06 March 2012.”.
Mixity is also a relevant consideration in this analysis. An article from November 2019 mentioned “about 1,000 women[16]Ari Gross Judah, « Le chef de Tsahal dénonce la ségrégation des sexes dans le service militaire », The Times of Israel, 1st November 2019” who had integrated the IDF’s fighting units, speaking of a record number. These women soldiers have integrated mixed units, but it has not always been so. On September 8, 1949, the Hen[17]abbreviation of Heil Nashim, in Hebrew “female body”, was created. It consisted of a separate unit whose mission was to train and educate female recruits, paying attention to their specific needs. It was not until 2001 and pressure from feminist associations that the Hen was abolished and women were integrated into the same course as other soldiers in the IDF. Even today, their integration as equals to men is subject to controversy and complex procedures. In January 2020, an officer testified about the pilot program that is supposed to “determine the suitability of female recruits for service in armoured units[18]Times of Israel staff, « Les données du programme pour les femmes dans les blindés auraient été changées », The Times of Israel, 10 January 2020”. He stated that their performance data had been altered so that the results were unfavourable to them. It is therefore accepted for women to be instructors in tank units during exercises but not to be part of the teams in the field. It must be noted that each advance in favour of women is the result of bitter negotiations, of legal battles such as the “Alice Miller” case, which we will discuss later, and this is still the case today. It is only a matter of gaining access to rights and privileges that were previously reserved for one part of society: men.
A gendered difference in the value of integration into the military
Military service can be presented in different ways and thus have different meanings. If one starts from the idea that the army needed manpower, especially to guard the borders, women were thus brought to participate in a national effort out of need: “A decision, for the government, seemingly almost natural, considering the lack of men available to defend its borders, and given the active participation, since the beginning of the 20th century, of women in Zionist military groups such as Bar–Giora, Hashomer, Gedud Ha’avoda, Hj.[19]Simonetti Ilaria, « Le service militaire et la condition des femmes en Israël », Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 2006, available online since 06 March 2012.” In this perspective, the integration of women would be less “the product of an emancipation battle for equal rights between the sexes[20]Ibid.” than a necessity to swell the ranks numerically.
It is no coincidence that the career prospects for women are very different from those of men: women must explicitly request to serve in a prestigious combat unit[21]Sasson-Levy Orna, Lomsky-Feder Edna, « Genre et violence dans les paroles de soldates : le cas d’Israël », Critique internationale, 2013/3 (N° 60), pp. 71-88., whereas a man can be assigned without any pre-required discussion. This is only one example of the differential treatment. We have already mentioned the gendered division of labour between men and women in the army. However, this observation differs from the image that is presented in the media in which the feminisation of the IDF is widely promoted.
The military is a setting in which men are expected to make a career. This is facilitated by the difference in length of service alone. On top of that, women have been performing military service since 1949, but it wasn’t until 1995 and the “Alice Miller v. Department of Defence[22]Sasson-Levy Orna, Lomsky-Feder Edna, « Genre et violence dans les paroles de soldates : le cas d’Israël », Critique internationale, 2013/3 (N° 60), pp. 71-88.” case that women were allowed to enter flight school. A January 2018 article[23]Sputnik, « Une féminisation de l’armée israélienne ? », Sputnik, 19 January 2018. mentions the promotion of female soldiers to positions previously never held by women: one woman became a squadron commander and another was promoted to lieutenant colonel. This information confirms that the feminisation of the army, and particularly for the most prestigious positions, differs from that highlighted in the media.
In addition to reinforcing the differentiation that already exists within Israeli society, the value of military service differs from one gender to another. A man who completes his military service, passes an “institutional” rite that makes him a man as well as a good citizen[24]Simonetti Ilatria, « Le service militaire et la condition des femmes en Israël », Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 2006, available online since 06 March 2012.. It is different for women. Women are seen as good citizens by are performing their duty through motherhood. This is particularly true in Israel, where women are encouraged to give birth as a sign of participation in a national effort, given the state’s permanent conflict situation. According to researcher Ilaria Simonetti, “several studies have shown that despite the presence of women, the army in Israel remains a place of masculinity, the promotion of men, the exclusion of women, and the reproduction and reinforcement of the gender division. At the heart of this scenario is a national discourse that values men as heroes and women as reproducers of the nation that must be protected.[25]Ibid.”
It is not uncommon to reduce women to their role of mothers when it comes to them being the actors of violence and not the victims. This can be seen in the media’s treatment of the American female soldiers at the heart of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal[26]« En avril 2004, le traitement des détenus à la prison d’Abu Ghraib, située à 20 km à l’ouest de Bagdad (Irak), choque le monde entier. Via des clichés pris en octobre, … Continue reading. Rather than recognizing a woman guilty of violence, we find excuses for her, extenuating circumstances and above all we reduce her to her roles as wife and mother.
We find this idea of protective instinct towards women in the thought of Colonel Patrick Destremau, director of the Institute of High Studies of National Defence (IHEDN) and of the Higher Military Education (EMS). He specifies that rather than courage, which is present in both men and women, he observes an “instinctive reflex of protection”[27]« L’efficacité militaire : spécificités et paradoxes [1]. Entretien avec le colonel Patrick Destremau », Cahiers philosophiques, 2010/1 (N° 121), pp. 109-122. towards women among male soldiers: “one of the first armies in which this observation was made is, from memory, the Israeli army, which had a large number of women in its combat units. To then decide not to put women in the front line anymore.[28]Ibid. ” In addition to reflecting the views of those who train recruits in the military, it seems that a woman is primarily seen as a victim of violence rather than an actor. The essentialization of the female body is still very much alive, and especially within the military.
Conclusion
This analysis highlighted a discrepancy between the reality presented by the media and that proposed by academics and analysed through a gender lens. Because of the importance conferred on it and its proximity to political power, this institution has a real power of influence over the soldiers it trains and consequently over an important part of society. Progress has been made in favour of female recruits, but not without difficulty and length. The integration of women on paper is far from reflective of the reality, as we have seen. Even today, some women still struggle to gain access to bastions reserved for their male counterparts. On November 27, an article appeared in which four young Israeli women demanded before the High Court of Justice that they be allowed to apply to join the elite, all-male commandos. Although the media r
eports each new female promotion as a breakthrough for Israeli women soldiers, their reality is that they are still “outsiders from within”[29]Sasson-Levy Orna, Lomsky-Feder Edna, « Genre et violence dans les paroles de soldates : le cas d’Israël », Critique internationale, 2013/3 (N° 60), pp. 71-88..
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[ To cite this article : Emma MONTRON, “Quelle est la réalité de l’intégration des femmes dans l’armée israélienne ?”, 11.12.2020, Institut du Genre en Géopolitique. ]References
| ↑1 | Rouach Déborah, « L’instrumentalisation du genre dans le conflit israélo-palestinien (2000-2020) », under the supervision of Marie Cécile Naves, Iris Sup’, 2020. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Term used by the Chief of Staff’s advisor on women’s issues: Sasson-Levy Orna, Lomsky-Feder Edna, « Genre et violence dans les paroles de soldates : le cas d’Israël », Critique internationale, 2013/3 (N° 60), pp. 71-88. |
| ↑3 | Definition by Joan W. Scott : Scott Joan, Varikas Éléni. Genre : Une catégorie utile d’analyse historique. In: Les Cahiers du GRIF, n°37-38, 1988. Le genre de l’histoire. pp. 125-153. |
| ↑4 | 2 years and 8 months for men versus 2 years for women. |
| ↑5 | Simonetti Ilaria, « Le service militaire et la condition des femmes en Israël », Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 2006, published online on 6th of March 2012. |
| ↑6 | Sasson-Levy Orna, Lomsky-Feder Edna, « Genre et violence dans les paroles de soldates : le cas d’Israël », Critique internationale, 2013/3 (N° 60), p. 71-88. Researcher at the Laboratory of Anthropology. |
| ↑7 | Researcher at the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale (LAS) of the EHESS |
| ↑8 | Simonetti Ilaria, « Le service militaire et la condition des femmes en Israël », Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 2006, available online on 06 March 2012. |
| ↑9, ↑21, ↑22, ↑29 | Sasson-Levy Orna, Lomsky-Feder Edna, « Genre et violence dans les paroles de soldates : le cas d’Israël », Critique internationale, 2013/3 (N° 60), pp. 71-88. |
| ↑10 | Abramson Larry, « Women In Combat: Some Lessons From Israel’s Military », NPR, 19 May 2013. |
| ↑11, ↑20, ↑25, ↑28 | Ibid. |
| ↑12, ↑13, ↑14 | Ibid. |
| ↑15 | Simonetti Ilaria, « Le service militaire et la condition des femmes en Israël », Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 2006, available online since 06 March 2012. |
| ↑16 | Ari Gross Judah, « Le chef de Tsahal dénonce la ségrégation des sexes dans le service militaire », The Times of Israel, 1st November 2019 |
| ↑17 | abbreviation of Heil Nashim, in Hebrew “female body” |
| ↑18 | Times of Israel staff, « Les données du programme pour les femmes dans les blindés auraient été changées », The Times of Israel, 10 January 2020 |
| ↑19 | Simonetti Ilaria, « Le service militaire et la condition des femmes en Israël », Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 2006, available online since 06 March 2012. |
| ↑23 | Sputnik, « Une féminisation de l’armée israélienne ? », Sputnik, 19 January 2018. |
| ↑24 | Simonetti Ilatria, « Le service militaire et la condition des femmes en Israël », Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 2006, available online since 06 March 2012. |
| ↑26 | « En avril 2004, le traitement des détenus à la prison d’Abu Ghraib, située à 20 km à l’ouest de Bagdad (Irak), choque le monde entier. Via des clichés pris en octobre, novembre et décembre 2003, on apprend que les prisonniers y sont physiquement et sexuellement abusés, torturés, violés et exécutés. » A woman in particular appears on these pictures, Lynndie England. Schmitt Amandine, « Torture, humiliations… Les photos qui ont révélé l’horreur d’Abou Ghraib », L’Obs, 25 August 2016. |
| ↑27 | « L’efficacité militaire : spécificités et paradoxes [1]. Entretien avec le colonel Patrick Destremau », Cahiers philosophiques, 2010/1 (N° 121), pp. 109-122. |