Women in the Sphere of Masculinity: The Double-Edged Sword of Women’s Integration in the Military

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. 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.