Twenty years after the last research was conducted on military families in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), this study explores gender arrangements in families of male and female career military personnel as viewed by their civilian spouses. The research objective was to analyze the differences in attitudes toward family life and examine the differences in work—family practices among the IDF’s career servicemen and women. The findings indicate that the IDF’s heavy demands on career personnel, regardless of gender lead to the construction of family and couple arrangements that deviate from the norm in civilian Israeli-Jewish families of similar characteristics. For the servicemen, this demand creates a ‘‘traditional’’ role division model that places the entire burden of family work on their wives; for the servicewomen the same demands create a relatively ‘‘egalitarian’’ role division model, by placing more of the burden of ‘‘family chores’’ on their husbands.
Mady W. Segal, ‘‘The Military and the Family as Greedy Institutions’’Armed Forces and Society13 (Fall 1986): 9-38.
2.
See, for instance, Gary Bowen and Dennis Orthner, The Organization Family-Work and Family Linkage in the U.S. Military (New York: Praeger, 1989); D.A. Blankinship, ‘‘Army Family Research Program: Army Families and Installation Leaders,’’Military Family Research Review (February 1990); S. Albano , ‘‘Military Recognition of Family Concern: Revolutionary War to 1993,’’Armed Forces and Society20 (1993 ): 238-302; D.B. Bell, M.L. Stevens, and M.W. Segal, How to Support Families During Overseas Deployments: A Sourcebook for Service Providers (U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Science , 1996); Chris Bourg and Mady W. Segal, ‘‘The Impact of Family Supportive Policies and Practices on Organizational Commitment to the Army,’’Armed Forces and Society25, 4 (1999): 633-652; Christopher Dandeker, Claire French, Catherine Birtles, and Simon Wessely, ‘‘Deployment Experiences of British Army Wives Before, During and After Deployment: Satisfaction with Military Life and the Use of Support Networks,’’Human Dimensions in Military Operations38 (2006): 1-20; Rene Moelker and Irene Van Der Klot , ‘‘Military Families and the Armed Forces: A Two Sided Affair?’’ In Handbook of Sociology and Social Research, ed. Giuseppe Cafforio (US: Springer, 2006), 201-23; Booth Bradford, Mady Wechsler Segal, and D. Bruce Bell with James A. Martin, Morten G. Ender, David E. Rohall, and John Nelson, What We Know About Army Families: 2007 Update (Caliber, an ICF Company , 2007 ).
3.
Aviad Paz, Families on the Home Front, A Survey of Military Servicemen’s Families (Israel: IDF Behavioral Sciences Center, 1982) [in Hebrew]; Moshe Israelshvili, The Wives’ Support of the Husband’s Military Service (Israel: IDF Behavioral Sciences Center,1987) [in Hebrew]; Helena Syna-Desivilia, Coping with Stress in Families of Servicemen (Zikhron Ya’akov : The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1988) [in Hebrew].
4.
Hanna Papanek in her article, ‘‘Men, Women and Work: Reflections on the Two-Person Career,’’American Journal of Sociology, 78, 4 (1978): 852-72, coined this term for describing the role of the wives in families of U.S. servicemen in the 1970s under the framework of a model that existed during those years in the U.S. military. According to this model, the serviceman’s wife was expected not to work outside her house and certainly not to develop her own career. Even today, women in the U.S. military hold a formal and informal ceremonial role, and the amount of support of their spouses was noted until 1988 as a component of the officers’ professional evaluation, as reviewed by Margaret C. Harrell, in her article: ‘‘Army Officers’ Spouses: Have the White Gloves Been Mothballed?’’Armed Forces and Society (Fall 2001): 54-75.
5.
In the U.S. military, being an officer’s wife means not only carrying the burden of house-work but also fulfilling different volunteer positions for the military, such as operating support groups and maintaining communication with the families and also managing and participating in communal and social activities.
6.
Dafna Izraeli, ‘‘Gendering the Labour Market,’’ in Sex, Gender Politics: Women in Israel, eds Dafna Izraeli, Ariela Freidman, Henrietta Dahan-Kalev, Silvia Fogiel-Bijaoui, Hanna Herzog, Manar Hasan, and Hanna Naveh (Israel: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1999 ) [in Hebrew]; Orna Sasson-Levy, Identities in Uniform : Masculinities and Femininities in the Israeli Military ( Jerusalem: Magnes -The Hebrew University Press, 2000) [in Hebrew].
7.
On family-military relations as a genderizing mechanism, see Hanna Herzog, ‘‘Family-Military Relations in Israel as a Genderizing Social Mechanism,’’Armed Forces and Society31 ( 2004 ): 5-30.
8.
See, Helena Carrieras , Gender Integration in the Armed Forces: A Cross National Comparison of Policies and Practices in NATO (The Committee on Women in NATO, 2004); Mady W. Segal, ‘‘Women’s Military Role Cross Nationally: Past, Present, Future,’’Gender and Society (December 1995).
9.
See, for instance, Melissa Herbert, Camouflage Isn’t Only for Combat (New York: New York University Press, 1998); Christopher Dandeker and Mady W. Segal, ‘‘Gender Integration in Armed Forces: Recent Policy Developments in the United-Kingdom,’’Armed Forces and Society23, 1 ( 1996): 29-47; Cynthia Enloe, Maneuvers (University of California Press, 2000 ); Laurie Weinstein and Christie White, Wives and Warriors: Women and the Military in United States and Canada (London : Bergin & Garvey, 2001).
10.
Dafna Izraeli, ‘‘Gendering the Labour Market,’’ in Sex, Gender Politics: Women in Israel, eds. Dafna Izraeli, Ariela Freidman, Henrietta Dahan-Kalev, Silvia Fogiel-Bijaoui, Hanna Herzog, Manar Hasan, and Hanna Naveh (Israel: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1999 ) [in Hebrew].
11.
In the U.S. military, labor force participation rates among army enlisted soldier’s wives have climbed from 44 percent in 1979 to 65 percent in 1995; see Chris Bourg and Mady W. Segal, ‘‘The Impact of Family Supportive Policies and Practices on Organizational Commitment to the Army,’’Armed Forces and Society25, 4 ( 1999): 634.
12.
Charles Moskos , ‘‘Towards a Postmodern Military: The United State as a Paradigm.’’ In The Postmodern Military: Armed Forces after the Cold War, ed. Charles Moskos, John Aallen Williams, and David Segal (NY: Oxford University Press, 2000).
13.
Margaret C. Harrell, ‘‘Army Officers’ Spouses: Have the White Gloves Been Mothballed?’’Armed Forces and Society (2001): 54-75.
14.
Charles Moskos and Frank Wood, The Military: More Than Just a Job? ( Pergamon-Brassey’s, 1988).
15.
The article is based on a survey conducted for the IDF with a representative sample of husbands and wives of career military personnel (officers and NCOs of all ranks) who had at least one child. The survey was conveyed over the phone, and the response rate stood at 60 percent (66 percent-wives of combat officers, 59 percent-wives of all servicemen, 58 percent-husbands of career servicewomen). The high rates of response indicate a keen willingness to take part in the survey which is intended to reflect a reliance of the families on the organization in general.
16.
Meytal Eran-Jona , ‘‘In between Military, Family and Gender’’ (PhD Thesis, Tel-Aviv University, 2008) [in Hebrew].
17.
From a meeting of the general staff of the Israeli Defense Forces 25/57, on December 12, 1957. On the agenda: Military officers [in Hebrew].
18.
See, for instance, Hanna Stier and Noah Lewin-Epstein, ‘‘Long-Term Effects of Women’s Employment Patterns on their Earnings,’’Israeli Sociology1, 2 (1999):239-256 [in Hebrew]; Dafna Izraeli, ‘‘Work and Family Relations, the Case of Israeli Middle Class Women,’’Women In Judaism7 ( 2001) [in Hebrew]; Anat Oren, Structuration of Gender Inequality in the Labor Market (PhD Thesis, Tel-Aviv University, 2001) [in Hebrew].
19.
Richard Harris and Juanita Firestonedescribe a similar process occurring in the United States, they found a general shift toward more egalitarian gender role attitudes among all women, regardless of their individual characteristics and circumstances. See Richard J. Harris and Juanita M. Firestone,’’ Changes in Predictors of gender role ideologies among women: a multivariate analysis,’’ Sex Role: A Journal of Research (February 1998).
20.
Anya Glikman, Anat Oren, and Noah Lewin-Epstein , A New Israeli Family? ( Tel Aviv: The B.I. and Lucille Cohen Institute for Public Opinion Research, Tel Aviv University, 2003) [in Hebrew].
21.
Anat Oren, Structuration of Gender Inequality in the Labor Market ( PhD Thesis, Tel-Aviv University, 2001 ) [in Hebrew].
22.
Gideon Kunda, Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation ( Temple University Press, 1992).
23.
Sara Helman describes a similar process occurring among reserve personnel in the IDF. See Sara Helman, Conscientious Objection to Military Service as an Attempt to Redefine the Contents of Citizenship (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1993): 147-152 [in Hebrew].
24.
Find more about the legal status of the Israeli soldier in Guy Zeidman and A. Raz, The Status of the Military Serviceman in the IDF as an Employee Iyuney Mishpat23 ( 2000): 342-291 [in Hebrew].
25.
The reasons for the spreading of the time-management pattern from combat units to the entire military could be a common organizational norm. Investing time in the service may constitute a criterion for promotion and reward within the organization, ‘‘compensation’’ for the lesser prestigious position compared to combat units, through similar working hours, an ‘‘imported’’ behavior in home front units by officers and NCOs who used to serve in combat units.
26.
Helena Syna-Desivilia , Coping with Stress in Families of Servicemen (Zikhron Ya’akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1988) [in Hebrew].
27.
Meytal Eran-Jona , Combat Personnel’s Attitudes Regarding the Family (Israel: IDF Behavioral Sciences Center, 2002) [in Hebrew]; Israel Defense Forces , A Report of the Chief Armor Officer’s Committee Regarding ‘‘Binding the Qualitative Factor’’: The Committee’s Findings and Positions (IDF, Chief Armor Officer, Army Headquarters-Psychology Branch, 2000) [in Hebrew].
28.
Examining employment data of spouses compared to the general Israeli labor force data reveal that the employment rate among wives of military men is similar to the general Israeli labor data. According to data from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2001 the employment rate among married women who had at least one child and an education of over 13 years is 81.6 percent. If their education is of 9-12 years, their employment rate is 68.9 percent (Annual Publication no. 53, 2002, table 12.8) [in Hebrew].
29.
Anya Glikman , Anat Oren, and Noah Lewin-Epstein, A New Israeli Family? ( Tel Aviv: The B.I. and Lucille Cohen Institute for Public Opinion Research, Tel Aviv University, 2003) [in Hebrew].
30.
The reasons for this situation are the military spouse’s difficulty in finding a job, limited career opportunities, frequent moves, stigmatization of military spouses, and so on. See, Laura Werber Castaneda and Margaret Harrell, ‘‘Military Spouse Employment,’’Armed Forces and Society34 (2008 ): 389-412.
31.
To learn more about support systems in western armed forces see Rene Moelker , Gabriela Poot, Manon Andres, Ljubica Jelusic, Jelena Juvan, Leena Parmar, and Maren Tomforde, ‘‘News from the home front: Communities Supporting Military Families.’’ In Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development ( Emerald Group Publishing, 2008), 183-210. Booth et al. Chapter 7: ‘‘Informal and Formal Support of Army Families,’’What We Know About Army Families: 2007 Update (106-25).
32.
Silvia Fogiel Bijaoui, ‘‘Families in Israel: Between Familiarity and Post-Modernity.’’ In Sex Gender Politics: Women in Israel, ed. Dafna Izraeli, Ariela Freidman, Henrietta Dahan-Kalev, Silvia Fogiel-Bijaoui, Hanna Herzog, Manar Hasan, and Hanna Naveh (Israel: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1999) [in Hebrew].
33.
See, for example, the work done by the wife of the former chief-of-staff, Shaul Mofaz: M. Eran-Jona, ‘‘In between Military, Family and Gender’’ (PhD Thesis , Tel-Aviv University, 2008) [in Hebrew].
34.
It is reasonable to assume that these patterns also exist among husbands of military women, but there are no existent studies examining this issue.
35.
Meytal Eran-Jona , ‘‘In between Military, Family and Gender’’ (PhD Thesis, Tel-Aviv University,2008) [in Hebrew].
36.
In a study by Shachar, it was found that the extent of relocation among families of the Israeli Air Force personnel is about 150-300 families every year. See H. Shachar, ‘‘Relocation Crisis among Career Army Families in the Israel Air-Force’’ (Thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts, Haifa University, Israel, 1996) [in Hebrew].
37.
In an interview I conducted in 2002 with the French Military Attaché in Israel, he noted that over the past few years, the French military has faced increased difficulties in relocation of servicemen, created by their wives’ refusal to move because of changes in their husbands’ positions (things may be different now 7-years later).
38.
See, for instance, Heidi Hartman, ‘‘The Family as the Locus of Gender, Class and Political Struggle: The Example of Housework,’’Signs6, 3 (1981): 366-94; Sarah Berk, The Gender Factory (New York: Plenum Press, 1985); Cynthia Fuchs-Epstein, Deceptive Distinctions: Sex, Gender and Social Order (Yale University Press, and Russell: Sage, 1988); Arlie Hochschild, The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Work ( Viking , 1989).
39.
A.C. Coser , Greedy Institutions (The Free Press, 1974).
40.
Anat Oren, Structuration of Gender Inequality in the Labor Market ( PhD Thesis, Tel-Aviv University, 2001 ) [in Hebrew].
41.
Based on a progressive statistical analysis (chi-square automatic interaction detector [CHAID]) regarding the question concerning the extent that wives are satisfied with their partners’ military service, it was found that the ‘‘pride of the service’’ variable was a discriminating variable in the wives’ satisfaction with their husbands’ military careers. When pride was high, satisfaction with the service was also high, even when satisfaction with the family role division was low.
