Jewish-Israeli female identity

Jewish female gender identity is based on several main causes underlying female inferiority to males:

a. The biblical and Talmudic heritage upon which the Jewish religion is founded: The description of the creation of women as secondary to

32 According to the researcher's interpretation

33 According to the researcher's interpretation

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the creation of man; defining her as easy to tempt and simple-minded because of her curiosity and disobedience as is written in the sin of the Garden of Eden and hence the conclusion that man must be responsible for her. One of the examples reflected in our life even today is marriage, perceived as an economic contract (Grossman, 2001) in which women are economically dependent on men, including for divorce.

b. Nationalism: Jewish society lived in the Diaspora. The reality in Christian and Muslim society in which Jews lived and functioned, was full of prejudices including attributing demonic characteristics and magic to women; faith myths and beliefs from diverse pagan cultures and ignorance.

The economic status of Jews as well as their different culture created a barrier between them and the entire society. Marriage was not allowed between Jews and others.

In this world was created the Zionist revolution, one of the basic collective identities to which each individual belongs is the national identity. National identity, like gender identity, is the result of social coercion, an identity that is dependent on circumstances and social pressure.

"…We were not suffragettes. I have already said that thousands of times and I will say it another thousand times. But the Palmach³⁴ really were: The Palmach were declared suffragettes. Amongst other things, the Palmach inscribed 'gender equality' on their flag and we were the girls who had to realize this principle. So we accepted this role ..."

(Ben Yehuda, 1981:296)

National identity is likely to contradict gender identity and create conflict, solved by waiving one of the identities at the expense of the other. "As I learned later, this change was one of the results of the shock of the Yom Kippur war that aroused in Israeli women…bitter awareness of their marginal status in a society under siege (Feldman, 2002:10).

Israeli women frequently became the representatives of the collective entity, while ignoring the personal entity. The collective honor is male honor; the more belonging to a group improves the self-image, individuals will tend to remain in the group, but if the group fails to fulfill this demand (Tajfel, 1978) the individual will

34 The Palmach was one of the first Jewish armed forces.

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take steps to alter the situation. Women strongly internalize their national belonging despite the harm to their collective female gender identity.

c. The army

One of the significant changes that Jewish society introduced as part of the Zionist revolution was the establishment of an armed organization. The contribution to the national objective was mainly measured in the ability to fight, to protect property, people and land or in hard agricultural labor, and the struggle for economic survival that lead to physical existence and ownership. Both domains traditionally are not areas in which women are (or allowed to be) involved.

Thus women became, the 'other' – the person whose attributes are rejected by the new Hebrew hero who adopted a behavioral change - participation in the fighting force or inclusion in agricultural work, and also because these are not women's work by common definition.

Even after the establishment of the State of Israel, the army held a central role in founding national and gender identities. It was perceived as a male organization, relying on dichotomous definitions of 'femininity' and

'masculinity' (Enloe, 1988). These differentiations are preserved by the organizational structure of the army, which is a gender, overt, formal and declared institution (Izraeli, 1997 b).

1. The army entails elements of a totalitarian institution that affects its members' identities (Goffman, 1961).

2. Military service is still considered a "normative event" performed by most young Israeli men and women. The public debate in Israel assumes a normative connection between military service, as an expression of civil commitment of the individual, and the equal and full participation in the civil establishment (Helman, 1993).³⁵

3. The impact of the military is not limited to its borders, but is an integral part of the Israeli culture (Maisles, 1993). Its symbolic prestige and centrality afford it great power and strength for the identities that develop in it.

4. Military practices that develop gender identities present a differential and hierarchical approach, and thus present an unequal message,

35 In an interview with Captain Chao Lee, born in Vietnam, on Rivka Michaeli's, channel 2 morning radio program on 1.8.2002, she mentioned her need to serve in the Israeli army in order to feel belonging to the State and to society in which she wished to live. (She came as an 8 year old child in the 70s , on a boat of refugees who got permission to stay.)

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according to which women, as women, do not have an equal position. Military practice also shapes differential meaning in civil life (Sasson Levi, 2001).

5. Female soldiers who participate in 'male' roles and account for a minority of the female soldiers serving in the army, are to be found on the seam between 'fighters' = men and 'female' soldiers who adopt three identity practices

• Male behavior patterns

• Aloofness from traditional femininity

• Trivialize sexual harassment (Sasson Levi, 2001)

The army in Israel was awarded other roles such as education, immigrant absorption, creating opportunities for social mobility, preventing delinquency and so on, roles that are not necessarily military. Social changes that began in the army are likely to seep into civilian life and influence sweeping changes in Israeli society as well. Thus the army affords a possible additional focus for leading change in attitudes towards women.³⁶

Within the many images of female gender identity two roles have shifted in most societies and in Jewish-Israeli too to those of 'motherhood' and that of 'wife'.