- Israel is one of only nine countries in the world
with mandatory military service for men and women.
Israelis are usually drafted at age 18,
right after high school, with women in non-combat roles
serving in the IDF for 24 months,
while men, and women in combat roles, serve for a minimum of 30.
Although many women in the IDF serve in combat
and hold high level officer positions,
it wasn't always this way.
How did women challenge the norms and achieve senior ranks in the army?
Out of necessity, Israel was the first country in modern history to make military service mandatory for both sexes.
The policy started during the War of Independence
when five surrounding countries invaded the new Jewish state.
David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister,
created a people's army and enlisted all Israeli citizens regardless of sex.
As he said: "Security will not exist if our nation's women do not know how to fight."
Because of that decision,
women bravely fought alongside men in the war for Independence.
Many women earned honorable distinctions for their military service.
And then there were those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
After a harrowing case of capture, rape, and then abuse
of a fallen woman's corpse by enemy forces,
the IDF decided to remove women from combat positions in 1948,
only a few months after the formation of the State.
From 1949, women soldiers served under the Women's Corps,
which had a completely different chain of command
and its own training, discipline, and judicial systems
while being stationed within other IDF units.
Dr. Sharon Geva, Professor of History and Gender at Tel Aviv University,
notes that the IDF justified gender segregation due
to a generally shared societal concern
against making women rough and tough.
Serving in these silos,
women often missed out on many benefits
that army service provides.
Serving in the military is an opportunity
to develop important relationships and lasting friendships.
The gender inequality of military life carries over to civilian society.
Sometimes military experience is the deciding factor in a job interview,
even more than education or other professional experience.
Between connections, specialized training,
and experience in high level combat positions,
army service can be a huge advantage.
In 1982 the IDF once again placed women behind enemy lines during the First Lebanon War.
Though still not in combat roles, women made up 30% of the military,
and the incursion into Lebanon demanded as many soldiers as possible.
Things stayed more or less the same until 1995.
That year, Alice Miller, a South African immigrant,
was denied the chance to try out to be a combat pilot
in the prestigious Israeli Air Force Flight Academy.
Miller possessed a civilian pilot's license and was pursuing a degree in aeronautical engineering.
While there had already been a number of female transportation pilots,
the military denied her request to even be considered for combat training.
So Miller sued the army.
The case ended up in front of the Israeli Supreme Court where Miller argued for women's equality.
The Supreme Court ruled in Miller's favor.
Women's combat exemption remained, but they now had the option to pursue it.
While Miller won the case, she was subsequently rejected from the pilot training program for medical reasons.
Although a step in the right direction, the ramifications of the case wouldn't happen over night.
The first units with female combat soldiers included the rocket artillery unit,
and the Home Front Command Search and Rescue brigade.
Women also patrolled the mostly peaceful Jordanian border in the Caracal unit.
From there, more and more military branches opened up to women,
such as the K-9 unit - Oketz,
and the Field Intelligence Corps.
By 2003, women filled more than 25% of officer positions.
Aiming to equalize women's military roles further,
the 2007 Segev committee set forth a vision
of what a more integrated IDF might look like over the next decade.
It called for a review of IDF drafting protocols, which hadn't been updated since the '50s.
Since men serve for longer periods, they had priority for certain jobs which required longer training.
The Segev report recommended not only opening up all roles to women,
but also making the length of service based on the soldier's position instead of gender.
It recommended quotas to ensure women have a "significant presence" in senior ranks,
and outlined a "gender code" which prescribed behavior norms between the sexes.
The IDF Rabbinate objected to the Segev report
and refused to endorse putting women on the frontlines,
fearing it would force religious male soldiers serving
in co-ed units to compromise their values.
Senior officers in the IDF argued that most female soldiers
couldn't handle the physical demands of serving in combat.
Thus much of the report was never fully integrated into policy.
Women have also faced harassment during their time in the army.
In 2016, an internal survey by the IDF showed that 1 out
of every 6 women in service had been sexually harassed.
Despite setbacks to full integration, women continue to move up in the army.
In 2001 the first female fighter pilot graduated from the Israeli Air Force academy.
In 2011, the IDF promoted its first female Major General,
and its first field unit commander in 2014.
In 2016 the Artillery Corps' prestigious drone unit appointed the first woman to head the unit.
The first female infantry battalion executive officer was appointed in 2017,
later going on to become a battalion commander.
2018 saw two female pilots, only known to the public as "Lt. Col. T" and "Lt. Col. G",
become the first female commanders of an air control squadron and flight squadron, respectively.
2018 also marked the first four female soldiers to become tank commanders.
In September 2020, Lt. Col. Efrat Kaykov-Levy became the first female commander of an artillery battalion.
And in November 2020 it was announced that a third female battalion commander
will be appointed in the Field Intelligence Corps.
This is only a fraction of the women achieving new heights of leadership in the IDF.
Every year, more and more opportunities continue to be seized by Israeli women determined
to not let anything hold them back as they redefine the notions of what a female soldier is capable of.
They continue to lead the transformation of an ever modernizing defense force.
These women have greatly expanded their roles in the military over the decades.
And they've come increasingly closer to achieving full equality.
Both women and men can now benefit from the structure, connection, networking,
and job training that are a part of army service.
Although women in the IDF have made history in achieving senior command roles.
They continue to experience setbacks and discrimination today.
But with more opportunities than almost any modern military in the world,
they will continue to redefine what it means to be a soldier in the IDF,
and continue to protect and serve their country.